life for his country and the family agrees, you expect to hear from the president of the united states and the people who work for him the tone of respectful, we're going to address their concerns and that's what we haven't heard from the white house, and we did before general dunford today. >> master class. i hope the president was watching. we know he watches a lot of television. my thanks to you all. that does it for our hour, i'm nicolle wallace, "mtp daily" starts now. >> if it's monday, the pentagon sheds new light on the u.s. military operations in niger. tonight -- the death of four american soldiers is drawing new questions be at attack and the u.s. military mission. >> their presence is part of a global strategy. >> we owe you more information. more important, we owe the families of the fallen more information. plus, the new republican party. why steve bannon's influence may be stronger than ever.

>> senate republicans finally got something done. they should thank steve bannon. and -- the national conversation on sexual harassment and assault. >> we all need to be part of the solution. >> women of the senate are speaking out. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. and good evening. i'm steve kornacki in new york in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." we just got new information in the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff about the ambush in niger that killed four american service members and will get to those highlights and details in just a moment. we begin tonight, though, with three big questions stemming from this incident. number one -- what are the political consequences of this deadly ambush? number two -- what are the consequences stemming from the president's

handling of the incident, especially how he has handled the dispute with a grieving military family? and number three -- what if there aren't any political consequences? today we heard from myeshia johnson, whose family has been dragged into an ugly confrontation with president trump that continues to escalate. she is the widow of sergeant la david johnson who was laid to rest this weekend after he was killed in that ambush in niger on a mission we still know little about. in interview johnson was asked about the president's claim that her congresswoman, "totally fwrab cra fabricated what was said during a phone call that angered her family." >> the president said the president was lying about the phone call. >> whatever ms. wilson said was not fabricated. what she said was 100% correct. that the president said he knew what he signed up for. but it hurts anyways.

and i was -- it made me cry, because -- i was very angry at, the tone of his voice and how he said -- he couldn't remember my husband's name. i heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband's name. >> now, up until this point, the president has gone after the widow's congresswoman, frederica wilson of florida, but not the widow herself. however, shortly after that interview aired this morning, he disputed the widow's account as well insisting, "i had a very respectful conversation with the widow of sergeant la david johnson, and spoke his name from beginning without hesitation. on this issue the president and his team have gone into a familiar mode of attack. he suggested past presidents did not make these kinds of condolence phone calls when, in fact, they did. he has said he has "proof" the congresswoman and widow's account is wrong but hasn't provided that prove and even called congresswoman wilson

wacky. his chief of staff called her an empty barrel. meanwhile, senator john mccain is leading an effort to do just that, question our military leaders. he's criticized the administration for withholding information on the niger ambush and is far from the only senator, democrat or republican, who's looking for answers now. >> and one of the fights i'm having right now with the administration is the armed services committee is not getting enough information. >> uh-huh. >> and they deserve it, because we represent their families, too. >> i didn't know there was 1,000 troops in niger. john mccain is right to tell the military, because this is an endless war without boundaries, no limitation on time and geography, you have to tell us more and he's right to say that. >> and senator graham didn't know we had 1,000 troops in niger. did you? >> no, i did not. >> some stories that said our soldiers are actually engaged in the battle that actually pursued them. others that said, no, they

actually attacked us. we have to find out what happened. >> have a hearing and hold accountable anybody who may have been responsible for sending these able young men on to a mission that led to disaster. >> and pushing back on some of that criticism, acknowledging he needs to do more to answer congress' questions about this incident. dunford explained u.s. troops were on a reconnaissance mission with nigerians fors as part of a broader mission about violent extremism and got ambushed. >> on the 4th of october u.s. and nigerian soldiers ban to move back south. they came under attack from approximately 50 enemy using rapped fire and grenades. during the firefight two u.s. soldiers were wounded and evacuated by french air. two were killed and evacuated on

the evening of 4 october and at that time sergeant la david johnson was still missing. 6 october sergeant johnson's body was found and subsequently evacuated. >> we begin tonight with pentagon corners hans nichols. what do we know as a result of the briefing we did not know before? >> just how long the firefight lasted. 1e6 several hours, 11:00 a.m. in the evening. it wasn't until two hours after the firefight began you had french air support show up on the scene. we know it wasn't until later in the afternoon that you had the evacuation of the american casualties. so more on the timeline, we want more, and we have a little sense what the broader role is. the why. why u.s. forces are in africa. we got new numbers, more official numbers. over 6,000 u.s. troops throughout all of africa now.

a sense what they're role sand how they want to fight and challenge isis not just isis is but where they're going to be and that's the importance building partners. they were clear on working with local forces to combat these elements. frankly, the u.s. can't do it entirely on its own. we got a bit of an articulation of the why. got a little bit more on the ticktock. we don't have the a precise sense just when those bodies were found and when those casualties were evacuated. it was evening. and, also, how the firefight was disbursed. was it u.s. forces that brought them out just on the ground or the french play some sort of role? again, the big question on this, how did something where it turned out they thought contact was "unlikely" how did that turn into a firefight in central africa, in niger? that is the big question. was it an intelligence failure? what were the troops doing beforehand? we know they overnighted in the

region and coming back to the base in the morning. leaving, heading back to their outpost leaving that village is when they were ambushed. guys? >> hans nichols at the pentagon. thanks for that. joined now by republican congressmanen francis rooney of florida. congressman, thank you for joining us. stay on this subject first about this ambush, about the new information we're learning now. some of your colleagues there on capitol hill, some of your republican colleagues there on capitol hill, say the administration has not been forthcoming enough when it comes to providing information on this ambush. do you share that view? >> well, we all know we're fighting a global pestilence of ices and al qaeda and you said on your show we need to take the fight to them, where they are and where they're going to be. given the number of troops in africa and multitude of this attack the other day it's uncome fwoent know more what in the non-classified axdss we're taking around the worlz.

armed services, intel committee including the foreign affairs committee. >> are you satisfied in terms of these inquiries you're talking about, potential inquiries, are you satisfied the administration is committed to transparency here? >> oh, sure. i think the administration will be committed to transparency. these green berets had evidently been there some time, conducted many sorties and somehow or another this one went sideways in a terrible, horrible way. >> let me ask you, too, about the president's response to the death of sergeant johnson. today, just hours ago this morning, he chose to go on twitter and telled world, everybody sees this message, to dispute the story that sergeant johnson's widow was telling. do you think that's a presidential action on his part? >> well, i know -- i'm sure it was a terribly emotional situation for the president to have to call the family of this poor young man whose life was taken from him. if i were him and just heard general kelly tell me about his son and -- i would probably use

some of the words general kelly said, too. >> but in terms specifically of what general kelly was talking about was the congresswoman from florida. the congresswoman from florida, frederica wilson, taking her role in his. this was a direct, specific response from the president of the united states, to a widow. a widow of the fallen soldier. we talk all the time with this president, we have never seen this before. i can't think of an example of a president of the united states directly con testing the version of events told by a grieving family member of a fallen soldier. do you consider that an acceptable thing for him to be doing? >> seems to be a difference of opinion of the tonality of the deliverance of the words delivered. i can't tell what you that was. the president said he was shocked there was criticism. he's pretty irritated there was criticism over using words general kelly had suggested. >> right. i'll try one more time. it's out there today.

a lot of people saying, the thing to do as president of the united states and a family member, a widow, any direct family member of a fallen family has criticism of you, critical about your policy, anything, not to say anything. do you share that view or think, no, this is fair game. >> i think it's appropriate and necessary to offer condolences to this family who had such a grievous loss. if there was a misunderstanding it might not be a bad idea to continue to make sure these people realize that the government of the united states shares their pain and thanks this young man for his service to his country. >> overall, how would you assess his response now? it's been several weeks since this attack. we've had the questions here on capitol hill about the administration and whether they're being forth if coming. had the president's direct handling of the issue with the widow. how would you assess this administration's response to this tragedy? >> fairly dreblt communication

and the president demonstrated he's a direct communicator. probably everyone in your studio would have a difference opinion what words to use in a very emotional, tragic situation like this. >> all right. congressman francis rooney, republican from florida. thank you for the time. appreciate that. let's bring in tonight's panel. kaitlyn huey burns, national political reporter and ms. mex wal for sirius xm and former adviser to the clinton campaign and john potgoreit, commentator of a magazine. john, start with you. that exchange i just had with the congressman i think we've seen versions of this going back to candidate donald trump. he says or does something that puts allies, members of the republican party, political allies of his, in a very difficult position. >> remember, general kelly in that briefing in the white house press room said, he told the president not to make the phone

calls, because there's nothing you can say that will, that people will want to hear, and that it's an incredibly difficult moment and there is very little condolence you can offer, and the president decided to do it anyway, and so he gave him some words to speak. clearly general kelly was correct. the president's decision to make that phone call was a terrible blunder. it hurt mrs. johnson's feelings. it created an eight-day firestorm, but the president is exacerbating this and putting guys like congressman rooney in the position of having to condemn the leader of their own party, and that is a self-inflicted wound we can discuss why he did it, what's wrong with him, why he can't just say he was sorry, repeat what george w. bush said to cindy sheehan. >> in 2005. >> said part of my duty as president is to meet those who have lost a loved one. i sympathize with mrs. sheehan. she was calling him hitler, a

murderer and a horror show, and he said, i'm not going to attack mrs. sheehan. >> camped out at the edge of his ranch in texas. kaitlyn, the other piece of this, the congressman gave him three, four opportunities. wouldn't condemn what donald trump said this morning. the idea of donald trump going after this widow in a public way. we hraised the question at the top. are there political consequences? an action i don't think we've seen in modern times as a president and gave an opportunity to an ally and wouldn't take it. >> interesting, republicans are tied to this president, republicans who are facing re-election next year as this congressman is, and in the middle of a tax reform debate. trying to get that legislation through. maybe we can talk about political consequences after they go through that, if they're able to do so, but during all of these controversies that we've seen, you can find kind of a constituency for the controversy

that donald trump gins up, right? nfl a good example. even if you don't agree with his strategy you could find a group of people this resonated with. with this issue,s hard to find a constituency support ive of the way donald trump is handling this. so it raises the question, what are the political consequences? i'm not sure that there are any at this point. >> and i think that the questions, though, i can't think of a constituency specifically on this. this is, boy, not tough enough on the families of fallen soldiers, but can you look at the political spectrum and say, here's the voters, the group of people who have stayed with donald trump and will they abandon them now? >> i don't think there is a constituency in that 35% or so that will leave donald trump no matter what happens. even if they colluded with russia, those people will still stick with donald trump even with evidence. this is a pattern. he's attacking a black congresswoman.

a widow who is of an african-american family. pandering to that constituency which likes him to hit back not just all the time when somebody attacks him but particularly when it comes to black people and people of color, like we saw with the mayor of san juan, puerto rico. so there's a pattern here. it's not something random. it's not a coincidence that he's hitting back very hard in a circumstance when the two women involved happen to be black women. >> can i just say that, one of the things we've discovered over the last year, donald trump has a floor under him. 35% and 40% support looks like. but he's got a floor. he can also build a ceiling on the top of that floor, that's half a -- a centimeter thick. a base is supposed to be something you build out from, and expand your support outward from. and if he's putting the ceiling on top of the floor by offending every possible person who is not

part of that, i will never leave you base, he is not giving himself any room to maneuver or his party any room to maneuver. >> i hear that and one thing i think about, we use that determine "base" in politics. the ones with you when everything hits the fan. watergate happens, it's who's still with nixon? you know? iran/contra happens, reagan, who's still with reagan. the difference with trump with, all of that stuff happened during theexactly. >> i feel the folks still with him on election day, all the base and just barely enough but were enough to get him elected president. >> most of these controversies been new. remember during the course of campaign feuded with a gold star family after the convention. what i'm looking at is, not only his base of supporters but what republicans in congress are doing. facing a situation they are going to be the one the held

accountable for a lack of perceived progress. you can argue they're on the ballot, trump as well, of course. you listen to the congressman you just talked to and we all talk to republicans on the hill and elsewhere, it's very difficult to see how this president is able to be held accountable by them, because they are intertwined in such a way. not only on legislation, but on the same voters, too. their voters. >> i feel and maybe saw it in the interview. i feel in general, a lot of republicans are politically, they feel paralyzed, as kaitlyn says, for every controversies there a prez dent. point back to what he says about john mccain two weeks into his campaign. this guy's no war hero. and here he is in a fight with the family of a fallen soldier. i think from a republican congressman's standpoint there may be a question, that, i don't know my base as well as i thought. >> saw it with the "access hollywood" tape. jauchlt moment, plenty of republicans i won't defend donald trump. not support donald trump, but

then eventually came around to support him again. so essentially nothing he can do that's going to lead them to disavow their support of donald trump. unless they have some moral courage. this is a possibly a moment they should. i can't imagine a situation where you're attacking a widow, continually. i mean, tweeting directly about the widow and basically saying, calling her a liar? i can't imagine something worse than that. again, we're talking about donald trump, on tape talking about groping women and who attacked the khan family last summer. i think there's plenty of precedent but it will take republicans with moral courage in this moment. >> and really -- >> unless they do, we'll be in this pattern every week. >> feels to me, though, like, look. not for the first time. probably not for the last time, we're left sitting here saying no other president has done x. >> right. >> he just did it. it would be shocking in any other context except for the

fact donald trump has done this so many times since he came down that escalator more than two years ago. thank you all. sticking around. much more later. coming up, will republicans' money trouble cost them control of house? or will democrats begin paying the price in 2018? because their voters don't get their message. sergeant schumann! here, first sergeant. you never told me you were a hero. i'm not a hero. you all right? no, i'm not all right. don't spare me the details. i can take anything but quiet. thank you for looking after my son. we're brothers. we look after each other. thank you for your service. rated r. remember that accident i got in with the pole, and i had to make a claim and all that? is that whole thing still dragging on? no, i took some pics with the app and... filed a claim, but... you know how they send you money to cover repairs and... they took forever to pay you, right? no, i got paid right away, but...

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welcome back. when it comes to passing a tax package stakes couldn't be higher forerepublicans, at least according to president trump. to two sources telling nbc news this weekend while on a conference call with house republicans president trump told them the 2018 midterms will be really bad if congress can't pass a tax overhaul. if congress can pass something on taxes, it will be "like skating on ice." sources said the president wants members of congress to use the word tax cuts rather than tax reform since he feels average people don't necessarily understand what tax reform

means. the president also was apparently optimistic about getting multiple democrats onboard with his plan. be back in 60 seconds. money managers are pretty much the same. but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

welcome back. we are still about a year away, but if you like to stay around the mountain term election cake is already being baked. house republicans may be short on ingredients. as we said, president trump told republicans this weekend things to be "really bad" come election day if they can't pass a major tax overall. meanwhile, former white house chief strategist steve bannon is barnstorming the country telling the base to defeat any republican who stands in the way of the trump agenda. the democratic party is starting to put its money where its resistance is. look at this. according to "national journal" 20 house outpaced by at least one democratic challenger. the list includes very senior republican lawmakers.

ed royce, rodney freelingricin. fearing wave in 2018 as money woes grow. mon money doesn't always mean more elech letoralelectoral. like millions of dollars from mitch mcconnell's dondors couldn't keep incumbent leuker strange from losing to roy moore in alabama. for democrats, the money seems to be there, but what about the message? joining me now national journal politics editor josh kroush oust . tell me about the republicans we hear running in districts hillary clinton won. are these the kinds of districts we're talking about? a grass roots democratic effort

to raise this money? fill in some of the blanks here. >> at the beginning of the election year a lot of republicans can confident the map was in their favor as far as the house goes. because you have a lot of conservative minded districts that are winnable for democrats but districts normally safely republican. you mentioned rodney freelinghousen in new jersey and lots in southern california, orange county, democrats hoar to make a lot of gains. happening looking at financial figures both republican, many of these republicans, are not raising thement of money they need to this early in the cycle raising possible retirements going forward or raising the question whether they'll have enough campaign funds to run full-fledged campaigns and at the same time, in many of the same districts, democratic challengers few have heard of bringing in pretty historic levels of money at this early stage. hundreds of thousands of dollars for people who are not brand

names at least at this point in time. >> money and politics. i think of the words shock and awe. remember jeb bush in the race. pull all of this money together and blow the field away with his money, and there was that theme with donald trump and his campaign in the primaries and general election, did not have the money necessarily you'd expect a winning presidential candidate to have. it didn't seem to matter. are we potentially overstating this here or different with house races? >> make a sports analogy to relate to a broader audience. this is basically like a football team's draft class. doing really, really well in the preseason's not in the regular season, still have games to play. the playoffs but showing a lot of talent. doesn't mean the house will flip but it means you have a large number of democratic house challengers. a large number of recruits living up to expectations, and you have a lot of districts and pretty republican, largely favored republicans in the past looking more vulnerable than a

few months ago. money isn't the only factor going into winning house races but sure is an important piece of the puzzle getting closer to election day. >> the money, too, speaks to that incredible grass roots energy we're seeing on the democratic side, but does that affect the messages the candidates can run on? if the money is coming from what you call the resistance grass roots, that the candidate feel obligated or pressure to run on that message or is there room maybe if the district's more conservative to tail ter? >> one of the things democrats are worried about, so many candidates sometimes in lesser regarded candidates running to the left that could pull the overall field to the left and make the nominee less electable or cause them to drain coffers before they get the nomination. the big money picture on both sides, the dnc hot bed of the resistance, anti-trump resistance, is doing a poor job raising money, struggling badly

so far this year, but the congressional campaign committees and more moderate candidates that are bringing in lots of money and not doing it necessarily on this anti-trump resistance message. so for all the talk about the resistance and the base and where the democratic party is headed, the formula for success at least as far as congress is concerned has been a more pragmatic message, one not just focused on donald trump. >> ask you a bottom line question. about a year out now. basically democrats need to pick up two dozen seats to take back the house. republicans trying to keep that from happening. the lay of the land now, which party's position would you rather be in? republicans or democrats? >> a a pure toss-up now. 50/50. i've talked to democrats very pessimistic about their chances even a few weeks ago. seeing polling, funding numbers, a lot more optimistic than a few weeks ago but the map is still difficult and republicans have the advantage of incumbency. >> thank you for that. >> thank you.

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welcome back to "mtp daily." the harvey weinstein allegations are shirning a new light on the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in this country. illustrating just how common this behavior is. in the wake of the story and the

growing viral movement of women sharing their stories with the #metoo, asking every female member of the senate, there are 21 now, if they have their own stories to share. four senators, all democrats said, yes and decided to tell us their experiences. elizabeth warren of massachusetts, claire mccask of missouri, heidi highcamp and the senator from hawaii. you can see this on our website, but we asked what solutions political or societal to deal with sexual harassment and assault. >> i think the importance of #metoo is, women being there for each other. >> it's hopefully a cultural-changing event and that it will, in fact, empower more women to speak up, and more women to talk about victimization, to prevent victimization in the future.

>> i do think what's happened in this country over the last several weeks might be the beginning of a, a change in making women more comfortable in speaking truth to power. >> if you swallow it down, put your head down it will get worse. >> we have -- support someone who has been assaulted, even then it's not easy to ever come forward. so we need to have programs to support that kind of reporting. >> i think a lot of women when we didn't talk about this, thought, it's just us. we're the ones who have done something wrong. >> i think we have to achieve something within our families and within our -- our children to say, it's not acceptable if you're raising daughters to say, look, you may not think it's ever going to happen to you, in all likelihood it will, and we should be raising sons to say, i will never do this.

i will behave differently. >> also recognizing that in many instances these kinds of unwanted attention occurs in a situation where there is an uneven power. and it's usually the woman who has this power. >> we'll be right back with senator mazie hirono how this conversation on sexual harassment and assault will continue to echo both on and off capitol hill. it's not the magic-wand kind. it's the rfid-collar-and- internet of things-kind we created with chitale dairy. so every cow can let farmers know how she feels and what she needs to be healthier- (phone vibrates) all with a simple text. tah-dah. magic can't make digital transformation happen. but we can. that's the power of vmware, part of dell technologies. for over 100 yearsaking like kraft has,al cheese you learn a lot about people's tastes. honey, what do you want for dinner tonight? oh whatever you're making.

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welcome back. joining me hawaii senator mazie hirono. we just heard comments along with a few of your colleagues. i want to ask about this issue of sexual harassment and assault and a bigger picture. something struck me. i heard this idea of this being a culture changing event that will empower women to speak up. and it occurred to me word for word the same thing was said about 25 years ago when anita

hill made her accusations against clarence thomas in the supreme court nomination hearings and i wonder, in the 25 years since, do you think looking at the headlines we're seeing now that much progress has been made? >> i think some progress has been made. i think maybe the younger generation is more aware of these kinds of behaviors, but it is pervasive and obviously we have not eradicated this kind of unwanted sexual attention and innuendo. practically every woman that i know has experienced this to some degree and as i said, you know, it's not cute. it's not fun. and when you have the president who admits to being a sexual predator, it goes to show how we objectify women in our culture and we must start somewhere and that's why i think it's important for us to take this moment to step forward and stand in solidarity and enable more women to just come out and talk about it, and you know, i hope

that this results in the guys, because it's usually the guys who are hassling us, to think twice before they say stupid things to us. >> i wonder, too, we're finding out so much here about various workplaces where this is happening. on capitol hill. in congress. the epicenter of american politics. how widespread a problem and issue is this right now? >> i think that -- it happens a lot when there's an unequal power relationship. so i think, you know, i used to experience this kind of hassling and innuendos and inappropriate comments when i was first entering politics. i would imagine that some of this particularly happens to the younger staff people in congress. and it shouldn't be happening at all. >> shift gears now to that tragedy in niger. the ambush, the death of four american servicemen. we are starting to find out more. we had that briefing a little while ago from the chairman of

the joint chiefs of staff. do you feel your committee received enough cooperation from the trump administration in being forthcoming and helping you get to the bottom of this? >> i know the senate arms services committee will have a closed briefing to find out what happened, and i am really appreciative of the fact that our chairman, senator mccain, has said, we need to find out what's going on. where are all our troops and what are they doing and what happened in this particular tragedy? >> did you -- two of your colleagues, chuck schumer and lindsey graham both were surprised to learn there were basically close to 1,000 american troops in niger. was that a revelation to you as well? >> yes. yes, it was, and that's why i think what this points out is that there are troops and more and more we're using or special troops to go to a lot of different places that we don't know about, and so this points out how we need to find out a heck of a lot more what's happening to our people. >> i think that raises a basic

question for people hearing it. the idea 1,000 american service members can be deployed if officially an advisory capacity. we see how easily that can turn into something a lot more dangerous that that sounds. how is that possible? members on the committee of jurisdiction wouldn't know about 1,000 troops being deployed? >> the president uses, has a lot of authority to, as commander in chief to fight terror, et cetera, and this is why so many of us support the idea that we need to have a debate about the authorized use of military force. that we can't keep using something that we developed and passed for 9/11 to cover any and all contingencies. >> i want to get a question here in as well as health care. the next major legislative item i think on your agenda there in the senate. you have lamar alexander, patti murray, republican democrat, they've come up with a compromise to keep the obamacare

subsidies going two years. chuck schumer, senate majority leader said democrats will be in line for this. i wonder, though, if every democrat in the senate, every democrat who works with chuck schumer, is for this, does that kill it with republicans in the house? >> let's hope not, because we have republicans voting against the latest iteration of trumpcare in july. so i hope that the responsible republicans will say, we need to stabilize the market by doing what lamar alexander and patti murray came up with in a bipartisan and the intention, the president did support and now doesn't. we certainly can't rely on the president for any kind of constancy. we should go ahead and do what we need to do to make sure we're not harming millions in our country who be relying on the subsidies, relying on help in getting, getting on to health care. so this bill should come to the floor.

>> also a new comment. just today from leon panetta, about the culture in washington. leon panetta, of course, a member of your party. listen to what he had to say. >> i've never seen washington as dysfunctional as it is today. both parties are in the trenches. they don't want to come out and work together. and when they do, they run into, into barriers of one kind or another. >> senator, that caught my attention, because he's including your party, his party, the democratic party in that. basically making the case that there is punishment from each party, from within each party, for members, for elected officials, who want to cross party lines and work together. is there some truth to that? do democratic voters, sort of the culture of the democratic party now with resistance being the buzzword? does that punish democrats with an instinct to work with republicans? >> frankly, there's a lot to resist about this administration and what their plans are and

what they've already put out in terms of health care. that's going to destroy health care for millions. building a border wall. that's not necessary. there's a lot to be upset about, and to be against. but at the same time, the democrats are very together and wanting to support health care as a right not a privilege. we've talked about infrastructure. something the president has said he wanted to support. creating jobs, long-term benefits. we managed to get together, lamar alexander and patti murray got together to put through, or put across a bill that should count for a vote. so when -- when we are dealing in good faith, then we can get together and that's, you know, the divisiveness that the president, in my view, has fermented in our country. >> senator mazie hirono, democrat from hawaii. senator. thank you for the time. coming up, steve bannon's war on the gop. stay with us.lw as master sergeant. they really appreciate the military family,

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welcome back. it's time for the lid. our panel back with us. caitlyn huey berns, calina maxwell, we're going to talk about steve bannon declaring war on republican party, saying on donald trump's behalf. epicenter is senate primaries. republican incumbents vulnerable in nevada, arizona, maybe mississippi and other states. how f how much of this is steve bannon and what he's ginning up and energy already there. >> remember bannon worked at goldman sachs. this is effort to stage a hostile takeover of the republican party with junk bonds. he doesn't have a lot of assets. what he has is the idea that he has power.

question is can he freak out elected republicans enough for them to believe his authority is such they need to sue for peace or let him buy with somebody else's money. >> if primaries successful? knock off republican incumbents? >> or sue for peace. what do you want me to say? do? where do i go so you leave me the hell alone? >> what is the energy here? just saw this in alabama. roy moore against mitch mcconnell, bannon down there and moore winning primary. >> bannon came in at end. roy moore was known commodity earlier. can argue if it's bannon himself that's effective. lot of republicans say he's overrated in that regard. but there is something to be said about the constituency that

he and donald trump are tapping into, making up base of the republican party right now. question i have is strategy. all the races are so different. going after jeff flake, critical of the president but voted with him on pretty much everything. and bannon supporting candidates in missouri and montana who are also courted by so-called establishment. and also campaigns running senate races who got the bannon endorsement and still wondering what does that mean? money behind us? running ads for us? name i.d. is big thing for fledgling candidates but what does it actually mean for the candidates? >> and zerlina, what does it mean? senate map that's ugly. bunch of good cycles. everybody looks vulnerable. democrats are looking, seeing alabama, may be fool's gold but right now polls are showing a close race.

possibility of bannon-backed candidates and suddenly a repeat of christine o'donnell, indiana, candidates too far left for the electorate. >> only way to reap rewards is if we stay focused. ignore the republicans and civil war going on over there and focus on turning out our own voters and making sure voter suppression and voter i.d. laws that were successful in keeping african-american voters at home in wisconsin or making it hard in other states, making sure they're excited to turn out because the democratic message is something they're excited about and they're able to cast ballots. until we do that, going to be competitive no matter where. civil war is opening up opportunities in places beyond

the normal map that democrats look at. telling them you should look to states that you've written off in previous generations of democratic politics. with trump in the white house, everything is on the table. >> fascinating. be eight years in 2018. 2010 had the first uprising in the primaries and thought would be dying down but winds are blowing again. caitlyn, zerl that, john, thanks for joining us. ultimate florida showdown, shark versus alligator.

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all right. in case you missed it, how about this one? sharks are supposed to be the top of their food chain. nothing else in the water is supposed to eat them, hunt them. sitting pretty or swimming pretty. except that they aren't. at least not entirely. check this out. newly published study. details how alligators are eating sharks. if you don't believe me, here it is, photographic evidence, take a look at this. that is a florida gator with a shark in its mouth. according to the study, alligators are opportunistic predators and will given the opportunity eat a shark. can travel into salt water for a sharky snack. according to one of the researchers, alligators need to watch their backs.

predator eats predator could go the other way, big enough shark could have a gator for lunch. if you're thinking about going in the water ever, it is just not worth it, ever. that's it for tonight. chuck will be back tomorrow with more "mtp." "the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> see you later alligator. >> after a while, crocodile. >> donald trump started the day with defense of his call to widow of sergeant la david johnson but ducked it today. >> can you address -- >> thank you very much. >> president trump is there anything you would like to