players but by the vice president, mike pence, the vp leaving the colts' home game after some players took a knee during the national anthem. did pence walk in with this intention planned walkout or was it an order from the west wing? colin kaepernick is standing up for the nfl, he is starting a take a movement t. new interview that will get the attention of nfl owners looking for a new quarterback. also this hour, we're on rexit watch from president trump, the commander-in-chief and the backup plan if rex tillerson bows out at the state department. they are putting together scribbleings at manned ley bay a. bunch of numbers could reveal how the gunman mapped out this master curve. and later today, the latest hurricane is a tropical storm. can residents along the gulf coast breathe a sigh of relief?

we begin this hour with a round of political football. first this flurry of reporting about an unsigned quarterback,colin kaepernick and whether or not he would stop taking a knee. cbs sports reported the pro ball free agent would stand during national anthem if given a chance to win in the nfl again. the reporter for that exclusive report later clarified himself saying him and kaepernick didn't discuss that issue. meanwhile, today's game between colts and 49ers was used as a stage for several nfl athletes just as players took a knee and protest the national anthem, vice president mike pence took a stand and shortly walked out of the stadium, but not without sending a series of tweets saying, i left the colts' game pous potus and i will not dig fify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our flag and national anthem. he said i stand with potus trump, i stand with our soldiers. i will always stands for our

flag and national anthem. so the incident did not go without comment from the president. he took credit from pence's departure. i asked him to leave if any players kneeled, i am proud of him and second lady karen, referring to karen pence, in attendance there. just to shed light on the travel of the vice president to do this, it was a lot, flying across the country on your taxpayer dime. last night he was in vegas to offer condolence toss victim's families. at a vigil there, he flew from vegas to indianapolis to attend today's football match where he ultimately walked out. there was a jersey ceremony for peyton manning. he was going to be there for that and that happened at halftime. but now the vice president, since he left that game, missing that jerry is ceremony for manning, he goes back to california and this is where he will be pushing the administration's plan on tax reform. i want to bring in our pan toll talk more about this, what we

have been witnessing today. joining me, junior adviser for move on.org. on set with me is a republican strategist and a lot to talk about. jean car low, let me talk about the vice president's motives here. it seems like he went to this, he announced on friday he'd be there, with the intent to celebrate peyton manning, who was having his jersey retired and the celebration at halftime. he left, to stage this protest of what players for the 49ers would do. >> is this just the interim or is it real will i the president using mike pence in a way for theater? >> well, first, put me down squarely in the camp of people who find it offensive, frankly, for anyone to make a political station during our nation's anthem, having said that, this vice president this whole administration seemed genetically incapable of wading into a hot button debate without making things worse. and i would really hate to think

that the vice president contorted his schedule and changed things around just so he could make more of a spectacle out of something that is dividing our country. >> that is not what the president or vice president should be doing. >> interestingly enough, he said he wanted to be there for manning. if you want to do a protest, there is a rams' game today, you know, he could be in l.a. the oakland raiders are playing. he could have been in california and not have gone there distance to make this statement. >> he's a hoosier, he wanted to see his colts play. he did and he didn't, all at the same time. as we were saying with the president getting on record here, taking credit for the vps walkout saying he asked the vice president to do so if players were to take a knee. why does the white house think they need to re-launch the debate. >> because for them it's a distraction and it's also just playing to their very small tricking base. but i have to say this, thomas, thank goodness for the first amendment right that allows thee players to take a knee. it's not about the flag. it's not about the military.

it's about police brutality. it's institutional racism that ails this country and had ailed this country for a very long time and what the president and the vice president are doing, they're trying toco op and issue, an important issue to turn it into something that fits them. but let's not forget, just two months ago, right in charlottesville, you had white supremacists, nazis, the kkk, inciting violence in charlottesville, marching. a young lady died that day and what did the president do? he called them very fine people. but when it comes to the second amendment right, republicans are all about it. first amendment rights, no way. you can't have first amendment rights. but this is what they're doing. this is a distraction. we have a lot of governing that needs to be done. we just had a tropical storm that hit the gulf coast. we have 3.5 million people, american people in puerto rico that don't have electricity. >> that shortage of food and do

not have drinking water and we have 58 people souls who died a week ago from mass shooting, but that's not what the president wants to do. he wants to start fights on twitter and also do this political stunt with mike pence today. >> anything you want to say? >> i was going to say, irrespective of how this administration had chosen to react and whatever tactics they are choosing to take does not distract from the fact that what these players is wrong. it is wrong to take a national unity for whatever reason, it can be about anything, it is wrong to pervert a moment of national unity for your personal agenda, it is disrespectful of others, it disrespects our nation and it is wrong. >> the constitution disagrees. we have a first amendment right. >> no one is debating they don't have a right to do it. having a right to do it and doing the right thing are two completely separate things. >> you are making it sound like it being wrong is against what this country is about.

>> that is not. >> i'm not at all. >> they have a right to do it. i'm catholic too. >> i happen to be a check and a yankees fan. i don't walk into mass on sunday in pinstripes and a batting helmet because i'm a yankees fan, because that would disrespect my church and be inconsiderate of other people there to worship. >> they have a right to neil. as the peaceful protest. you have this administration who worry like i mentioned we had nazis, white supremists, marching. marching. >> this is a false choice. absolutely it is. >> it is not. >> you r he called them very fine people. >> you are disagreeing with the platform, where they're choosing to demonstrate. as she is pointing out, this is a peaceful moment. when someone decides that they want to protest something and you want to protest something, i can't dictate to you where to do it. >> i am not suggesting. i have never said that they shouldn't be allowed to do it. i said that it is inappropriate.

these are men who have 23 hours and 57 minutes of a day to protest any time any place anyway that they want. they should take those three minutes to honor our country in its totality and honor others who happen to be in the stadium to share in that moment for them. not to use it for their own personal agenda, it's selfish and wrong. >> it is not a personal agenda, it is a big deal, an important issue for many people of color in this country. >> and no one is denying that it is not an issue. >> you just called eight personal agenda. that's not what it's about. >> sure it is. >> it's not a personal agenda. >> meanwhile, for colin kaepernick, he's not working. he doesn't have a job, he is training really hard, spending his time trying to make himself ready to go, if he gets a call from the nfl. now, all of these folks are on record the owners, the gms, a lot of players who didn't take a knee before, take a knee now, it's interesting to see he remains on the side lines and when we think about all these

quarterbacks that are playing in the game right now, they kind of stink and he would be a lot better than them. >> and he deserves great credit in my book for truly putting his money where his mouth is. i have not debated whether or not he is a man of principle. he clearly, i admire him for. that i'm opposed to the tactics he has chosen to take to express his. >> let's get to how americans feel about this, the cbs poll show 52% of americans do disapprove of the anthem protests and then there are 55% of americans that are disapproving the president's calls for firing players. so that is really interesting. i do want to get your take as america is split over this. i do want to get your take on twitter today with the president jean carlo going after bob corker and corker firing back and this whole interior gop feud that is playing out in public, who does it benefit?

>> well, it remains to be seen in the run-up to the election. i was very flood see senator corker give as good as he got. i think as we approach the mid-term and the president's popular declines, republicans will feel more liberated to speak their mind and understand that crossing the president in many instances is not going to have a terrible political consequence for them. >> i will give you the last word here, corker will be arpd for a while, he is not running for re-election, he can be a thorn in the side of the president for a year-and-a-half. >> corker is free to say what he wantens and he believes he is no longer running for re-election. look, donald trump is not accustomed to getting punched back and corker clearly gave am knockout punch today, but here's the reality, the truth is, donald trump needs corker a lot more than corker needs him. i mean, that is just the reality that donald trump is if right now because he hasn't been able to pass one major piece of legislation and he can't afford

to lose anybody. >> well, real quickly, the president tweeted, bob corker gave us the iran deal. that's about it. we feed health care, tax can you describe u cuts/reform. we need people that can get the job done. it was interesting to hear the president. i think it was just on friday when he gave this interview that the hill was reporting on saying that you know in theory, i want to focus on north korea, iran, other things. i don't want to focus on fixing somebody's back or their knee or something. let the states do that. anyway, now he is saying bob corker can't get that job done. really interesting. great to see you. kareen, great to see you. thanks, for your time as we have been talking about the tweet storm from the president the freshest went minutes ago the head-to-head matchup with bob corker, saying he gave us the iran deal, and

that's about it. we need health care, we need tax cuts/reform, we need people getting things done. on the heels of learning cia chief mike pompeo for the job of secretary of state. but that job is already filled. rex tillerson has that job. is he considering leaving? that is something that was widely panned after nbc's exclusive report about the fact that the secretary of state had considered that over the summer, also calling the president a moron. well, the white house is pushing back on all of these reports. take a look. >> rex says it's not true. the president tweeted it was fake news, you are running the story. you folks are the only ones doing it, so it's between you and the folks involved. i believe the folks involved. >> i want to bring in peter alexander at the white house for us, first, let's go to the corker tweets. because the president can't seem to let this one go. bob corker certainly had a zinger earlier today. >> reporter: i think that's

exactly right, senator bob corker, the chair of the foreign relations committee uncorking a real dagger at the president, responding to his criticism from president trump. he wrote it's a shame the white house has become an adult day care center, someone obviously missed their shift this morning. those are the words of senator bob corker as you have been talking about on this broadcast right now. there are reasons why this feud is important. we've talked on this broadcast routinely about all the establishment republicans the president has gone over, jeff flake of arizona, the list goes on, including lindsay graham among them, one of the challenges when you go after senator corker here, he's a powerful figure as a senate chairman on a variety of issues he has influence if secretary of state rex tillerson leaves, he will be significant in securing, whoever his replacement might be, corker is a fiscal hawk said if the new tax reform plan, if

the president's plan basically raises the debt even by a single cent that he would be a no vote. >> that itself another no vote the republicans cannot afford on a series of other topics, including iran, the president needs bob corker's support. >> we have a very good relationship. we disagree on a couple of things. sometimes i'd like him to be a little bit tougher, but other than that, we have a very good relationship. >> reporter: that sound byte was the president speaking about rex tillerson, referring to the relationship that the two men there have. obviously, tillerson, as we've reported has basically been in this tough position where the president only a week ago was cutting his position on north korea, president trump tweeted stop wasting your time after tillerson revealed there were back channels taking place between the u.s. and north korea. the president insists he has full confidence in his secretary

of state right now. nonetheless, i think it remains to be seen how this will play out. foreign experts say this simply cannot last like this. it's erepairable t. president is headed to asia in general, i think it seems likely he would hold on the to tillerson until that time. >> if we get on friday and rex tillerson is a good man. we know what that means. we haven't heard that yet. appreciate it. careful calculations, next, we will dig into the details revealed about the vegas shooter. what was scribbled down, in his room, before carrying out the deadliest massacre on u.s. soil the window us out of the mandalay bay this as victims and families are marking one week since their lives were changed forever. plus the gulf coast is not in the clear. nate may not have been as fierce as the officials feared, flooding and power outages are still in the mix.

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. >> okaying back now with the latest on nate and the hurricane season. nate was the fourth hurricane to hit the u.s. this season, but nate is close to being no more. now downgraded to a tropical depression. so it made a second landfall this morning at biloxi, mississippi, it lost steam over land. despite states of emergency and widespread preparations, officials revealed they were spared. but the threats they aren't entirely over just yet. dotty schwartz is moderating the situation. i know this morning the governor, phil brian, said that mississippi is really fortunate. >> reporter: yeah. absolutely. they were spared. i want to show you one of the places, this is one of the worst places we've seen, but it is not that bad by most people that live here's own words. let me show you what i'm talking about. right now we're on dolphin island. we're going through a road.

this is past a police barricade. we were talking to them. they let us through because we were with the press. it's just us and people that live in this area. this is why, because the road has bake allege been washed out. you got sand on both sides, in fact, this is an area dug out by earth movers, but the sand was so bad a little while ago, you see the big truck on the left here with different axle. this was stuck here in some sand. it took an earth mover to push them out. this is the little pathway that they've created. this is about as far as we can go, though, i want to show you around this corner, it's basically as far as you can see, this is the type of sapped about three-to-four feet in this roadway. it stretches about 4 miles. so this is what people are digging out from here, thomas, back to you. >> all right. thank you very much. keep us posted on what you are seeing down there. appreciate it i want to take you out to las vegas and update what's happening there. because tonight marks one week since nearly 60 peopler gunned

down at a concert on the vegas strip. a memorial stands as authorities continue to piece together a motive behind why the shooter did this. now, investigators say numbers, they found scribbled down by the gunman could at least answer how they pulled off the worst mass shooting in modern history. nbcs a ron allen is live for us in las vegas for the memorial for the victims. what more are you hearing about the investigation? especially these scribbleings, the numbers that were found in the hotel room? >> reporter: not must have been about the investigation, thomas, the numbers appear to be his calculations the gunman's calculations for targeting the crowd, the range the trajectory to hit from the 22nd floor hundreds of photoaway. today the focus is on this, this memorial. there are literally hundreds and hundreds of people coming here all day. there are the 58 crosses erected for each of the victims that was killed. there are pictures, there are

photos, people stopping by to write messages, leave flowers. it's a day of reflection, a day of really powerful thoughts and feelings about what happened. here is some of what people have been sharing with us this afternoon. >> we're here to support everyone and show my love. it's just different when it's your own city. >> reporter: it's home. >> it makes you feel a lot more love for people. >> it's evil, unfortunately, it's a part of our life. but we want to make sure that we show love and just to reach out to everybody who is hurting. >> reporter: it's hard to calculate the number of people who have been coming, but they're still coming. we have been here several days on and off, never seen anything like this, thomas, it's amazing, people are saying they want to be here, they feel they have to be here to show support to show unity, to show compassion, given what's happened in this town. back to you. >> a great outpouring, yes,

people feel compelled to be a part of something. ron, thank you. appreciate it congressman steve scalise is back on the hymn. he is working, moving forward and all doing this while recovering after being gunned down this summer. it was june and they were practicing at a congressional baseball practice on a virginia field. but here's the louisiana republican returning to the house floor late last monlth and received this hero's welcome back. now we have seen him back to work and he has gone on record about being a victim of gun violence, what does he think about what happened in vegas and do we need more and stronger gun control measures to be enacted in the 82ers to come? nbc news' chuck todd sat down with him on "meet the press." take a look. >> it is a long history in our country to make sure you protect the right of citizens to bear arms. >> but is it unlimited? >> it is. you are right in the sense that there are already limits on the gun ownership. frankly, let's go out and enforce those laws. don't try to put new laws in

face that don't fix these problems, they only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to own a gun. >> joining us now is a colleague of congressman scalise, michigan congressman. it's great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> being on the democratic side of things, there have been democrats up front and outspoken dating back not only to what we witnessed in sandy hook, but before that about trying to come up with stronger gun control measures in this country. here we have a republican colleague who is a victim of gun violence and we know that gabby giffords was almost assassinated at a congress on your corner and she's still recovering from that, but nothing was done. are you surprised by his reaction? >> no, you know, i disagree with steve. i know he's a colleague, he's a friend. i spoke with him last wednesday. it was a great day to see him come back, but i disagree with him on this point. i think it's very clear that

there are still laws that we can put on the books. we need to close this bunk stock loophole so we don't see the kind of mass carnage that we saw in las vegas. we perhaps could have prevented it, had those bump stocks not been legal. so i think there is a legitimate debate. there is room for a dejit mat debate. i disagree with steve. i think the majority of the working people do. i am working with drapts and republicans crafting our own legislation to address this one specific question. but there are other things we can do as well. >> but if there is someone like a steve scalise who is a powerful member of congress, who is still in rehabilitation coming back after what happened on that practice field, where it was the team of gop republicans practicing for that game, how do you get the will to move forward to do anything if there is not

an advocate in someone like scalise? >> well, you know, again, we welcome steve back. we're so just thankful that he's fine and he's going to be back to work. but that doesn't mean i agree with him on this subject or many, many other perspectives that he brings to the house. he and i differ on a lot of things. this is one of them. but i will say this, i have been talking to a lot of republican members of congress, democrats and republicans. i have been working directly with other members of congress, democrats and republicans. i have been working, for example, with congressman brian fitzpatrick. he and i and a couple of others, democrats and republicans, are working on our own legislation to deal with this issue. the question is, not whether we have the will or the will is present in the house of representatives. i think it is, to do something about this. the question is whether the republican leadership will allow us another constitutional question that comes up, will we have the right to exercise our

constitutional responsibilities and vote on this important question and i guess, while we are embracing the constitution, which we should, we ought to actually read it and pay attention to it and realize that the people's house the house of representatives should have a chance to vote on the ideas that we put forward. if it fails, it fails. i don't think it would. that's really the question that faces us right now. will we be able do the work of the american people by putting a reasonable well thought out piece of legislation on the floor and get a yes or no vote? >> that will be the biggest task, the on us is all of us to see if it can happen. thank you very much, i appreciate. >> thank you very much so as we have been following on the ground in puerto rico, it is two weeks later and it still looks like a war zone. fema is there. they say they are doing the best they can. they have called the action, they call her calls for action political noise, basic supplies

is what she is asking for, water, help for people to get to hospitals, celebrities have been stepping in. a rapper is in studio and joins me next to talk about what he's doing and how can you help. ve m, mr. stevens. your testimony will save lives. mr. stevens? this is your new name. this is your new house. and a perfectly inconspicuous suv. you must become invisible. [hero] i'll take my chances. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free. it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. try super poligrip free. ♪

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very good towels, i came in, there was a crowd of a lot of people. they were screaming. they're loving everything. i was having fun. they were having fun. they said throw them to me, mr. president. so i'm doing some of the -- so the next day they said, oh, it was so disrespectful to people. it was a made-up thing. >> president trump defending his actions in his visit to puerto rico earlier this week. he sat down for an interview with governor mike huckaby for his new show mike huckaby's daughter is sarah sanders, the president doesn't do a lot of sit-downs, one-on-ones, he was throwing out paper towels, saying everybody was loving it. there was backlash for those in

puerto rico that are suffering from the damage of hurricane irma as well as the devastation from hurricane maria. remember they got a double whammy with those two storms. residents still struggling to get access to most of their basic needs. we're talking about electricity, all way down to the simplest of clean water. now the aftermath has left 12% of the island with power. 44% with cell service, just over half of the residents that actually have clean drinking water. i want to bring in rapper and activist fat joe, who just returned from puerto rico yesterday after helping with the relief efforts there. it's great to have you here, joe, it was earlier today the san juan mayor of puerto rico, carmen cruz that said that the federal government does not want to help. we need water and the fema director -- >> that's where you got to go. we need water. so we have been raising so much food and water for all the

people over 2 million barrel, we have been getting them down there on planes. then i had to see my family. i went there with theboro president reuben diaz from the bronx, his family saying to my face. we don't have water, can you give me water? what do you mean? they're all police officer, you don't have water? we don't have a water. i went to my family's house, they were like, we don't have a water. we don't have a water. i even went to the streets with a bag of money and started asking around, yo, where's the water? where's the water? there is no water out here. a bottle water. a week ago down the street right now you can buy 50, 60 water, they don't have a simple thing as water. it's impossible in the united states of america, two weeks after the fact, these people don't have water. we flew in a plane yesterday with 200,000 pounds and it was the only plane. so, we are saying san juan is so much better off than the west

side, but even in san juan the plane we flew in, i thought it was going to be 20, 30 planes sending if gods from all over. it was just our plane. it was just our plane on the island of puerto rico and the people are hurting. the people on the other side, the people in the mountains, like, they're really, really hurting. you know, and we're trying to do our best and collect things for them and send stuff over there and, but at the end of the day, it's heart breaking. i saw a line, maybe about two blocks long and it was the one place that had water, but they only allow you to buy two bottles of water. i pet with my family over 100 cousins, aunts, one of my cousins is the national guard and it was so scary to me, because we're so proud of him, but he looked at me with the same face i saw on katrina, the same exact face, he is face said, i know what has to be

done, but the bureaucracy is holding us back. so he's proud of being american. he's proud to help the people. but he's looking like, he got that face of despair, like, i'm out here, cousin, i'm trying to help. people ain't letting us do what we got to do. >> so in response to the san juan mayor saying with efeed water. brock long of fema said they had filtered out the mayor of san juan and that was just political noise. what do you make of that type of response and also the first -- >> first i think it starts with she's a female. she's a woman. people need to respect women more and they think she's weaker because she showed compassion for her people and they have taken that the wrong way. this woman is out there in the water in the trenches fighting for her people and saying the truth. there is no water in puerto rico. a glass of water, there isn't a glass of water in the united states territory. you mean, i don't want to talk, i'm not really an activist or

politician, but we can fly 20 ships with bombs to go blow up iraq or north korea and we can't feed our people and give them some water andgy them some food, some bake supplies in people dying in the hospitals, no generators, no gas for the generators. like, it's amazing what's going on over there and we can't let it fall on deaf ears. >> i think it's baffling to a lot of folks. when are you going back? you just went back yesterday? >> it's not enough. man. i landed. i took, two, three suitcases of food for my family. when it got there, i'm like, oh my god, it's 100 of them. i got to go back. they're proud, they're proud to be american. these are u.s. citizens be you with ereally got to help them. it's really a desperation. >> on october 17th, you guys are going to work with j.lo, jay zee. other artists. >> we are doing everything we can. i'm so proud of our people the hip-hop community. i've never seen an effort like

this where everybody has joined together to collect for puerto rico. all my life being an artist, marc anthony, we're doing his concert the 14th. there's not enough to do. we need our government to step in and show real change, show that you are really caring about our people. we can't do it as civilians ourselves. we are trying as mump as we can. but it's impossible. we really need the government to step in and really walk the walk and talk the talk. >> well, you definitely are. so keep us posted. thanks for having us. thanks for your tooilt time. >> title.com/puerto rico. we need to send these planes, if you can send a dollar, $5, $10, title.com/puerto rico. i went out there yesterday to show you the food is getting to the people. let's go. >> everything he said, we are back in a moment after this. you. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together.

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. >> so there are questions

surfacing today about the future of current secretary of state rex tillerson. these have been questions that have been asked for several days. plus we have president trump engaging in a fresh social media battle with republican senator bob corker. trump tweeted just about an hour ago, about bob corker, saying he gave us the iran deem, that's about it. we feed health care, tax cuts, reform, people that can get their job done. joining me right now national political reporter at bloomberg msnbc political analyst david corn and mother jones and national security analyst evelynn barkus. great to have you with us. the bob corker twitter fight, why would trump pick today to do that? is this all based on the corker interview he says mattis, kelly and tillerson are the only people we have that keep us avoiding chaos? >> it certainly could be, thomas, it's lard to do justice how extraordinary this is. here you have a prominent republican senator comparing the republican president of the united states to a toddler in

need of day care after that senator was attacked be i the president in a series of tweets. it's the kind of this inc. that would seem far fetched if it was a fictional plot in a political comedy. yet, here we are, it's real. it's happening. there is a lot to unpack there, including corker disputes the president's version of what happened in their conversation. what sticks out to me, thomas, corker is one of the most essential members of congress for the president's agenda, he's a chairman of the foreign relations committee. he holds the keys to the nominees, which holds a successor for rex tillerson. he's an essential vote for tax reform for president. he is making demands that will be hard to meet like not adding to the deficit. but on top of that he's not running for re-election. so he can spend the next 15 months saying and doing what he wants. it's hard to fathom the end game for from president to alienate him. >> corker is a u.s. million. he can retort anyway he wants, most of twitter, because he's

not that prolific on twitter. he believes he won twitter because of his one retort. again, this was the president going after corker saying he wanted an endorsement. he said, no, he wanted to be secretary of state. he said, no thanks, also went after him for the iran deal and said he didn't have the gut toss run for re-election. but, david, when we switch topics and get to the other, you know, issue of clashing, non-clashing, they're supposed to be buddies or friend mys or who knows what? be tillerson, will there be a rexit a because tillerson and the white house would like us to think all is fine in dem line. >> at this point it's almost irrelevant if rex tillerson comes or stays. you know, just last weekend, it was donald trump saying, you know, whatever you are doing with north korea trying to work out a diplomatic resolution to the issue of north korea developing nuclear weapons, it doesn't matter. stop, you are wasting your time, talking won't work.

and tillerson has no friends, really, in the white house. really, maybe john kelly is, but he has no friends really at the state department either, where he's come in there and alienated the thousands of people that work there by not protesting them in terms of budget cuts or showing that he cares that much about their mission. so the state department and tillerson have been sidelined overall and he's kind of like dead man walking and will remain that way. i think that's what trump wants. >> well, let's take a listen. because the president was supportive of tillerson last night. take a listen. >> we have a very good relationship. we disagree on a couple of things, sometimes i'd like him to be a little bit tougher, but other than that, we have a very good relationship. >> all right. so that's the shady compliment, evelynn. do you think, though, that is a precursor? >> probably. >> to rex tillerson going? to david's point, he is not the most effective in his job.

he is neutered by the president via twitter. what itself in it for tillerson to stay, especially when it's true, he didn't deny it, he called the president a moron over the summer. >> first of all on tillerson, there has been a death watch. we call this in washington, a washington death watch on a cabinet member, it's an open secret in washington, they're not happy or their boss isn't happy with them. in this case the president. so on tillerson for a long time people have been watching and predicting he's not going to last much longer. certainly, his effectiveness has been completely 81 cut. not only by the president's tweets but now be i this kind of lack of denial, so it looks like an ad mission that he actually did call the president this name. you know, we need a secretary of state in there who does have the president's confidence. we also need a secretary of state with expertise. unfortunately, secretary tillerson never had the foreign policy expertise and running a

bureaucracy and knowing how to use the bureaucracy to help american firestone policy achieve its objectives. we need a secretary of state frankly speaking who has his or her own base, somebody with their own power base so they can stand up and speak truth to the president when feed be. and, obviously, they have to be willing to exercise that influence and use that power. and we haven't seen any of that in secretary tillerson. so i think a fresh start would be welcome by many, including many inside the state department. >> well the only person that seems to have any type of accountability or influence for accountability right now is bob mueller. david i want to talk about that because of the russia probe and the fact that the news of mueller's staffers speaking with christopher steele, that is the former uk spy behind the infamous russian dossier. i know you had a chance the sit down with steele back in october of last year. he was unmaimed at that time your source was unmaimed. but you sat down with him before

he went underground. what do you think the hills interest and mueller's interest is in the dossier? is it a true interest or more of a red herring? >> well, you have to remember, that as i reported all the way back then, that christopher steele has already sat down with the fbi. when he started doing this work in june of 2016, he was so troubled by what he was finding regarding what he believed to be links between the trump camp and russians that he, even though he wasn't working for the fbi, he called people he knew in the fbi, he had contacts there from his previous line of work. so i have this information and ended up feeding it to them and a few months later, they said, give us more. so everything he was finding in his source from his sources and other material have already been given to the fbi, which are the people doing the investigation, bob mueller. i'm assuming bob mueller is going back to him saying double checking, do you know anything

else, what about this source, that source, doing good, steady investigative work. but the fbi already has all the best stuff that he developed. >> all right. we'll see where it goes. all the best stuff that we have gotten is just from accusations that have been made in that dossier but connected dots from the trump organization to the agalarov family to the prugs u russian prosecutor the interests that many members of the interior trump team had with the russian ambassador, kislyak, the meetings they went under reported with, there's already there-there. the dossier is unnecessary. >> well, in a lot of ways, you know, it's not evidence. it's not evidence. i think it was used to guide some of the fbi folks in the early days what to look for, but it's not evidence. >> and reporters. >> and reporters. >> well, thank you. we will continue talking about this, evelynn, great to see you,

david thanks to you, appreciate it. president trump has taken on the late night comics over what he calls unfair and unfunny coverage of his administration. >> why can't your party pass a health care bill? because football players national anthem, neiling, where's the outrage? can we push the offer online? brian, i just had a quick question. brian? brian... legacy technology can handcuff any company. but "yes" is here. you're saying the new app will go live monday?! yeah. with help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. with the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. i'm not a customer, but i'm calling about that credit scorecard. give it. sure! it's free for everyone. oh! well that's nice! and checking your score won't hurt your credit. oh! i'm so proud of you. well thank you. free at at discover.com/creditscorecard,

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a mess because president trump threw paper towels at them. >> so late night comedians and donald trump are having a sparring match and the president did tweet that the late night hosts are dealing with the democrats, all anti-trump, should we get equal time? and jimmy kimmel tweeted excellent point, mr. president. you should quit that boring job. i'll let you have any show all to yourself. now, there's a president show already and anthony is the star of the president's star. he's a nut, i'm addicted to this show. although i needed to see this past thursday night's show, i tell my mom, my aunt, i tell everybody about this show. >> thank you. >> this is not an homage to president trump. >> no. >> are you ever worried about the biting satire that you deliver? >> oh, no. no no. not at all. that's our responsibility.

i mean, it's a duty if you choose to be a political comic and a satirist your job is to go for the jugular. not only that, but to take -- don't just repeat what trump does or what any politician does or party does. but you have to say if this is true what else is true? you need to throw the stone forward so people can see what the result would be before the fact. >> so the trump -- you know, we have alec baldwin, over people that have tried to do trump. >> yes. >> your trump is really spot on. you do a great job with, you know, the imitation of the president. you know, down to the fingers and how he holds his hands and the body gestures. >> yeah. >> obviously the makeup. but had you been doing donald trump before this? >> i did him for first time two months after he announced. in august. we were improvising at that point, at the citizens brigade and somebody said mr. president and i spontaneously did him and worked on him and then we did a

tour with one who played bernie sanders played trump versus bernie. that led us to the tv show. >> if you haven't seen it, after this interview you have to go on your dvrs and set a recording for the show. this is a clip. it features anthony playing again trump. it has to do with the tweets that the president sent about transgendered vets. >> if you're willing to switch your gender who says you're not willing to switch sides? >> sir, this is beyond the pale. i did four deployments with the navy, one with the coast guard. are you calling me a traitor? >> no. >> would you do these bits because there are -- those are real people. >> yeah. those are real service members who are real heros who served this country. >> you went and had an interview with one of the congress members -- >> yes. sherman, yes. >> who was deadpan. i mean, he was spot on with you.

>> the sherminator. >> yes. you get folks involved in this. you have done other bits where you're behind a double sided mirror that you're watching folks. >> yes. >> when do you bring folks into the bit typically? say for the example with the veterans right there, they knew they'd be a part of it. but how much improv is invested? >> oh, the field pieces are completely improvised so we do everything on the spot. we don't -- we're not a prank show so we're not about undermining any of the guests. we are inviting them and the purpose of that piece was to really advocate for the service, the transgendered members do in the military and the inhumane treatment that is propagated by trump's tweets. and in fact, even corker we did a piece about trump going to the day-care center about 18 weeks ago. so i'm assuming he must watch the show because -- >> you are well -- >> we were very ahead of the curve. >> so corker probably has a dvr setting. so good to meet you.

>> a pleasure to meet you. >> i love your stuff. >> i want everybody to tune in. a new time slot. >> 10:30 on thursday nights and we are excited about it. as far as equal time, there's not equal time for bad ideas that's my rule. >> thank you very much. coming up next, much more right here on "msnbc live" in our next hour.

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hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts here at msnbc world headquarters in new york. the president is ramping up attacks against senator corker on twitter. trump says we need people to get the job done. this is after corker equated trump's west wing to an adult day-care center. then there's this, the president may have another staffing debacle on his hands with nbc news reporting that cia chief mike pompeo is being considered as secretary of state. but that's only if the current secretary of state rex tillerson were to bow out. tillerson said that's not