catch joy at 10:00 tonight when i watch and learn what the news really was. that does it for our hour. "mtp daily" starts right now. >> thank you, nicolle. happy friday. have a good weekend. if it's friday, the more things change, the more they stay the same. tonight -- capitulation nation. a year of republican surrender to trumpism hit a breaking point this week, but did anything actually change? >> we don't comment on political situations or contributions from the podium. >> plus, shades of blue. from always sliberal to disfactored democrats. is the divide on the left as dangerous at the all-out civil war on the right. and are the president's promises to fight the opioid crisis enough? >> they are clogged, overwhelmed. first responders are overwhelmed. >> reporter: to the front lines of the overdose capital of the country. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now.

good evening. i'm chuck todd near washington and welcome to "mtp daily." we begin tonight way year and a week of capitulation for the republican establishment. this time last year a lot of mainstream republicans were confident trumpism and its attack of the establishment side the republican party would lose at the ballot box and lose big league. but if this week showed one thing, it's how dominant a force trumpism has become since then. it's gotten to the point where the fight between the establishment and the president isn't much of a fight anymore. now these are the republicans leaving high office. >> you would think he would aspire to be the president of the united states, and act like a president of the united states, but, you know, that's just not going to be the case apparently. >> we must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the conduct of some in our

executive branch are normal. they are not normal. >> and these are the kinds of republicans running for high office as in virginia where goober in a tower candidate ed gillespie has to run ads like this. >> ms-13 is a mess yesterday ralph northam voted for letting dangerous mexican citizens back on the street. >> time for keeping them up. he's for taking them down. >> and alabama senator roy moore using mr. trump the rise as an act of god. >> you have said that donald trump was put in the white house by god? >> everybody else thinks it's the russians. i think -- probably the hand of god. >> meanwhile, republican leaders like paul ryan seem to have gone from these warnings against trumpism -- >> if a person wants to be the nominee of the republican party, there can be no evasionened no

games. they must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. >> normally i do not comment on what's going on in the presidential election. i will take an exception today. this is not conservatism. >> insisting no one wants to hear republicans when they, you guessed it, warn against trumpism. >> i don't think the american people care about that. i don't think the american people want to see us up here yelling at each other. they want to see us fighting for them. >> folks, the loudest trump critics in the gop seem to be a lot less vocal or their cries are falling on deaf ears. some purged from the party by choice or force, like corker and flake. others have decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, like trump's campaign rivals now working for him or with him. rick perry, ben carson even now apparently lindsey graham. folk, president trump is winning these galgbattles against the g

and shrinking the party and could have major consequences. the war isn't fought inside the party. end of the day, fought at the ballot box and what happens if democrats replace flake and corker? joined now by david french a senior writer with "national review" somebody i think established, never trumper in conservative ranks. welcome back to the show, sir. >> thanks for having me back. appreciate it. >> you were pretty critical, felt like, this week, or critical, wrong word. disappointed that it appears the -- the wing of your party, or at least folks that you feel as if you agree with when it comes to how to deal with president trump, are essentially surrendering? >> right. i hear a lot of this talk of a civil war in the republican party. it's not a civil war. it looks a lot more like from where i stand, a mop-up operation. and you know, maybe the beginnings of an insurgency. the only civil war i see son

tw is on twitter and that doesn't really matter. this is donald trump's party and you real see that, for example, where i live in middle tennessee. if you're opposed to trump, good luck. good luck in a republican primary. i think this is the same way in many other states. >> so what is it that you think the establishment wing of the party hasn't figured out yet? i mean, look, i think steve bannon is exactly right about one thing. the leadership in the republican party in washington has no clue about what the grass roots of the republican party, or at least the majority that nominated donald trump, want. >> i think that is absolutely right. i think one of the really big miscalculations of the last two to three years is that the gop establishment thought its base was more conservative than it really was. they thought that the insurgency they would face to be an insurgency sort of from the constitutionalist right. sort of the ted cruz style

insurgency and completely missed a latent populism. knew about the anger. they didn't know about the populism and i think a lot of folks are still trying to figure this all out. people are still trying to figure out, believe it or not, their own electorate, and you see that happening and see that confusion in washington. >> you know, considering what happened to jeff flake from his release of his book to his retirement announcement this week, what message did that send to all of the other senators that both senators corker and flake swear agree with them? >> you know, i think it sent a -- well, sent a message that trump was -- although corker would deny it, he's been absolutely more outspoken since he said he wasn't running. flake was outspoken before he dropped out. >> right. >> but he was on his way out. and i think the message that that sends is, well, the only

safe space from which to lob volleys at donald trump is one where you're on your way out, with the exception of dben sass. that might change if mitt romney runs for senate in utah, we might see the beginnings of a counterinsurgency, but until then, it looks more like a mopping up operation. >> interesting. you see mitt romney's potential candidacy, if he does win, do you think he automatically becomes sort of the leading opponent of donald trump on the right? >> you know, i think almost -- almost by default, although ben sasse has been very outspoken and very strong a very strong conservative of conviction, who is not kowtowing to trumpism. >> let me ask you about sasse. is there a point tweets aren't enough? >> depends what you mean. of course senator sasse will vote for policies he agrees with that come from this administration. so it depends what you're

talking about. if it's holding trump's feet to the fire say in a russia investigation where other republicans may let things slide, i would have confidence that senator sasse would do that. >> anyway, finish your thought on mitt romney, that he is, you do see him as that person after -- i hear you on sasse. i think you're right about him as well, but if romney gets in there it ought marcly becomes -- will we see a show preview of 2020 do you think? >> way premature to say but you would have a respected republican who's far more conservative than donald trump coming from a very safe seat who would have zero -- would be immune from any attempted intimidation from trump and it would set up a very interesting kind of confrontation. we'll have to see. >> let me ask you this -- whose political standing has gotten stronger within the republican party for taking on donald trump? >> in the republican party, i

can't think of anyone. >> david, give you a tidbit from our nbc/"wall street journal" poll coming out this weekend. john mccain, most popular person we tested and a negative rating among republicans. >> sure. sure. that's right. and that doesn't surprise me. i think it's pretty darn clear. especially in the afterglow of the surprise victory over hillary clinton that donald trump has a huge reservoir of goodwill with rank and file republican voters. no smize if someone comes at him in the aftermath their standing will diminish. interesting to see, if trump maintains ta hold over the longer term. >> that's right. why i think we're in battles, describe these at battles not wars, because i think the ballot box still will have something to say. david french, good to talk to you. appreciate it. we're going to keep the conversation going. tonight's panel, a republican strategist for the rubio

campaign. and deputy editorial at the "washington post" and cnbc's editor at large and the political guru there. mr. harwood, this guy worked on one of those campaigns that didn't figure out what the establishment wanted. we'll get to that sentiment here. it's interesting. this fight for a year, these guys seem like they were going whatever it was to stop trump and who where we are a year later? >> look, donald trump was able to consolidate that working class vote within the republican party. the other part of the party was divided. and it made him the nominee, made him the president, but i don't think we should exaggerate his strength, yes, he is dominant within the party, in many ways reflecting things that existed in the republican party before donald trump. the anger of that working class base. he channeled it and he harnessed it for his campaign, but he is shrinking in the polls.

he is now at 36, 37%. he was higher earlier in the year. the fox news poll came out yesterday, had a 15-point advantage for democrats on the generic ballot. so even though people like corker and flake are stepping away, if that is a straw in the wind for weakness for the party, that is going to strengthen democrats, put donald trump in trouble, and accelerate the question of what the republican party needs to be. >> alex, to me, the end-all question. similar to this, donald trump simultaneously has gotten stronger in the party and the party simultaneously feels like it's gotten smaller. are both true? >> the party has gotten smaller in terms of his popularity. the point john made. poll numbers going down. in part why we're having trouble governing. >> lost the center right independent voter right now? >> absolutely right. that's why people like jeff flake were struggling in the polls because those supporters are missing in action right now.

i will say there is more unity in the part now than we're giving credit for around our agenda. i don't think there's going to be a lot of republicans voting against tax reform. there's not -- everybody wants to get that done. everybody wanted to get obamacare repeal and replace done. end of the day, two votes shy, or one vote shy in the senate. so there's a unity around the agenda. the moment the agenda die is when trump has to worry. >> what happens if they don't get taxes done? i feel take that liake -- it's all on taxes and feels like desperation passing it? >> exactly right. it is a all on taxes now. first we'll get a glimpse of the potential future and a sense of their discomfort or -- whether they're going to continue to maintain their silence. the other republican senators, as corker and flake ramp up their talk with particularly the

virginia gubernatorial election. how that goes will be overinterpreted by senators as well. >> but -- >> republicans as well as -- >> if gillespie wins, it is going to say, well, we know what everybody's position will have to be on the statues now. fair to say? >> our heritage. >> two questions on -- go ahead. >> then the tax thing is going to be the whole enchilada and if they cannot get their act together to get that done, then i think it's just this sort of weird, everybody for himself or herself situation in the party because they will simply be the proof that this is a governing party that can't govern. >> describing the democratsing in the 1970s. what they were. become every elected individual. >> two points on taxes, a question for alex. matt latimer, speechwriter for george w. bush wrote a piece the other day saying donald trump will regret if they pass tax reform.

why? the point in which republicans who aren't leaving office decide to cut him loose and voice concerns that corker and flake -- >> get what they wanted. >> what they wanted and look at it differently getting to 2018. second question in terms of unity on the agenda, what are the white working class voters going say and think when they figure out that the distribution of the benefits of this tax plan are going to big corporations and the wealthy, most of whom they think taxes should go up on. >> the question every member of congress and everyone in the trump white house is asking right now. how big should corporate tax cuts really be in this political environment? when we see the bill, released next week -- >> by the way, saying sensitive to this issue? >> 100%. my former boss marco rubio is pushing hard for a child tax credit. he might not -- >> the non-child tax credit. the same even don't have a child? >> wants to expand it.

he might not get everything because they want corporate tax reform. that doesn't fly lilly. donald trump understands that and the rest of party will figure it out in the next week or so. >> andrew sullivan had quite the tour de force in his weekly column. let me read you one excerpt and let you respond. this is the column's titled "what the trump abyss looks like. he writes in the "new york" magazine. mccain moral, flake and corker retiring, and the fib phibi is next to be attacked, nfl is reeling, epa castrated. this time last year i warned of an abyss. this is what it looks like. ruth? >> i assume you just -- what do you make of that take? >> totally -- >> a rough pessimistic take. >> kind of correct. what do you argue with there?

>> counter. >> that's me. he used the word castrated and i was going to say that senator corker told my colleague jackson diehl that the secretary of state had been castrated, but feels to me, sorry, guys, and women of the republican party, their fellow senators seem kind of neutered. i totally disagree. i think when you see the president do things like the statements after the charlottesville rally, saw people like cory gardner, tim scott, marco rubio, quick to step out and say those statements were wrong. on russia, republicans especially in the senate doing a serious investigation. passed additional sanctions over the white house's objections have been willing to stabbed ndo the president, maybe not as much as some would like, but you do see it and while at the same time trying to get stuff done. >> two words in response to that, which are gillespie ads. those ads are an illustration from ed gillespie, establishment

republican you of where in a pinch you think you need to go. >> winners make policy. loser go home, as mitch mcconnell said. >> we will pause the conversation on that note. stick around. we talked a lot about the republican civil war. up next, can anything bridge the democratic divide? we'll dig into that a few minutes as well. ♪ ♪ everyone deserves attention, whether you've saved a lot or just a little. at pnc investments, we believe you're more than just a number. so we provide personal financial advice for every retirement investor.

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welcome back to "mtp daily." a constitutional crisisunder way in spain. what happens next is unclear. lawmakers in the catalonia region of spain officially declared independence from the country today. minutes later the spanish senate voted to give the central government in madrid direct control over the catalonia region. thousands gathered tonight in catalonia's capital of barcelona to celebrate their independence. meanwhile, the spanish government fired the regional government in barcelona. dissolving its parliament, calling for a new local

election. the spanish prime minister is also fired the head of catalon's region's police and shut down their foreign affairs department. a statement released, catalonia is an integral part of spain and the united states supports the constitutional measures to keep spain strong and united. those who voted in favor of this could fate rebellion. keeping an eye on what happens next. it isn't clear. will they just arrest these folks? sort of becoming more dicey by the day. we'll be back with more "mtp daily" in one minute. your joints... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is now the number one selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide.

prevagen. the name to remember. hi. so i just got off the phone with our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight... four weeks without the car. okay, yep. good night. with accident forgiveness, your rates won't go up just because of an accident. switching to allstate is worth it. welcome back. all week we've been talking about the fracturing republican party, but democrats are arguably just as divided add republicans but not in power so nobody notices. the pew research center breaks down the democratic divisions into four subgroup in a new

staudte. largely, solid liberals, highly educated engaged democrats believe in big government and social safety net. the best illustration of this group would be barack obama. his home group. next largest democratic group are what are referred to as disaffected democrat. your fed up voters on the left say the economic system unfair and businesses make too much profit. it's the group bernie sanders would probably fall into, if you were actually a democrat. elizabeth warn is the face of this group and opportunity democrats. financially comfortable, and are concerned about the environment and social issues also more hawkish on the world stage. it's the group for hillary clinton and perhaps a michael bloomberg, again, isn't actually currently a registered democrat. lastly, what they call devout and diverse. a racially and ethnically diverse group who believe more action is needed to achieve racial equality and say faith in god is necessary in order to the moral. former president jimmy carter a member of this group and civil rights leader like former

atlanta mayor andrew young. folks, for all the talk of a praur in the republican party, democrats have their own issues. somewhat of a coalition to stitch together if they want to win back control and right now are without a true leader to rally behind. joining me to discuss, chief campaign vstrategist to the hillary clinton campaign and msnbc political analyst. joe, welcome back. >> thanks for having me. >> you want to keep your pollster hat on. something from the clinton campaign first. this dossier. you were the chief campaign strategist. when did you know the campaign was helping to pay for part of it? >> first of all, i only learned that when it came out in the paper recently. just last week. i can tell you the first time i heard about this. i remember where i was. i was in chicago the night of barack obama's farewell speech, which was i believe january 9th or 10th when reporters started calling me about it. i had no idea this was going on inside the campaign and i have to say, it's not entirely

unusual that in the area of opposition research sometimes in campaigns it is a very close hold sectored off from the core campaign. >> but in -- come on, joel. you're the chief strategist of the campaign. you're in that inner circle. i guess it's sort of weird to me, how is it, if you were -- if a campaign somehow was paying for this, that no one on the campaign new? something he did on his own and just builted campaign? >> i don't know who else knew. it was paid for through the law firm. my job, focus on strategy and messaging. i didn't oversee opposition research. i've seen this happen before in campaigns occasionally where there have been efforts undertaken that are not widely known in the campaign. >> do you look at this incident now and think, well, if i'd known, i might want to have, had

the information. maybe used it. maybe shared it. do you think this was a missed opportunity by the campaign? >> my recollection from january and talking to journal i69s aft jurc journalists, the dossier isn't documented. talking about things highly sensitive. during the campaign a lot of stuff about donald trump was highly sensitive and still things that never came out. apprentice tapes, things like that. when doing that stuff you have to make sure every t is crossed and every i dotted. you don't jump into the deep end of the pool on supposition and things you haven't validated and you know will stand up. there's nothing worst than delivering an attack that blows back in your face. >> do you think this undermines the russia investigation a little? >> not at all. i think the russia investigation is something entirely different. look, donald trump would love to and spends a good part of his day as president instead of governing the country trying to distract people from the fact

that russia a major adversary interfered in our election, which we know. everybody knows. our intelligence agencies know it. that's the issue. then the issue is, was there collusion? this was an attempt apparently through the law firm to develop some information that never panned out. had nothing to do with the campaign. and whether we knew when they undertook it or not, that it had to do with russia, i have no idea. >> let's dive into the democratic -- >> the fractured democrats. there you go. >> fractured democrats. it's a -- it's interesting here. if, probably, the biggest split would be between what i called the obama group. solid liberals, and the warren/sanders group, disaffected. really, because it's -- the two yups, one believes the system's working essentially and one doesn't. that seems to be something, a divide hard to bridge. if you just fundamentally, if one side -- one group that

fundamentally doesn't believe the system is working and one group does. >> well, accept i think where the groups come together, and this is the challenge for democrats and the opportunity. if you look at the questions in the pew study about whether the economic system un235irly favors the powerful, every democratic group is at a solid majority at that level. i think two of the groups at 99%. one is at 67%. you know, on the republican side, none of the groups are a majority. there is a clear difference on that perception and if you add in another very important economic question, what you talked about with the panel, about corporate tax cuts should be raised or lowered. to me, this is just like health care was a unifying issue for democrats. the tax giveaways and there's no reform in the tax giveaway to corporate america is a place democratic groups all four, are strongly allied and not a single republican group is in a

position where they think corporate tax cuts, i think one of them, the core conservatives, think corporate taxes should be lowered. i don't think any of the other three groups believe that. this is a wedge economic issue and just like health care, relevant to people's lives, this goes to the heart of what democrats need to do, reclaim the middle class and working class through this issue. >> another thing about this typology survey i always love. do it every three, four years. i wish they did it more often. some of the junkies do, but what was also interesting about it was how there was less overlap essentially than ever before. there were less -- i think only 32% felt perfectly in a sort of five of their categories put them on the left and five categories on the right and the way they tried to put people. when you look at the various breakdowns on the right, was there an obvious place that you think democrats should target? my point -- that's what i noticed was missing this year. i didn't see one group i oather side that suddenly you thought,

ooh, they could flip to the other side because they could swing? >> i mean, look, you probably heard me say a million times, if you heard me say it at all, that the way you have to win, win the middle. one of the things that the typology exposes while you're talking about the fractured republicans and fractured democrats. most people are not monolithic in their views. extreme republicans and extreme democrats in this typology are about 20% of the elech rit each, meaning another 60% of voters out there who have mixed feelings about issues. you have to talk to them about things not only important in their lives but reflect where their values are. that's one of the values of this. this is designed to create some of those tensions among and between groups and i think they do a reasonable job of it. we need to be able to speak to people of faith more than we do. we need to speak to people who are in rural america, hurting, more than we do.

>> right. >> i think we need to jump in on the opioid crisis. the president declares a national emergency and doesn't put a dime behind it, this is a pandemic problem across the united states, we need to be on the leading edge of those arguments, not the trailing edge. >> a lot of democrats agree with you on that one. probably a lot of people on both sides. anyway, joel, as always, appreciate it. thanks for sharing your views. still ahead, opioid crisis? take you to the front lines's relief for the first responders? we'll take you to the overdose capital of the country. that's next. another day of work. why do you do it? it's not just a pay check, you actually like what you do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it.

and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪ and do the best work of your life. accused of obstructing justice to theat the fbinuclear war, and of violating the constitution by taking money from foreign governments and threatening to shut down news organizations that report the truth. if that isn't a case for impeaching and removing a dangerous president, then what has our government become? i'm tom steyer, and like you, i'm a citizen who knows it's up to us to do something. it's why i'm funding this effort to raise our voices together and demand that elected officials take a stand on impeachment. a republican congress once impeached a president for far less. yet today people in congress and his own administration know that this president is a clear and present danger who's mentally unstable and armed with nuclear weapons. and they do nothing. join us and tell your member of congress that they have a moral responsibility to stop doing what's political and start doing what's right.

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a lot more "mtp daily" just ahead including who may be the next senator to become the next thorn in the president's side? and coming up this sunday on "meet the press," exclusive interviews with missouri democratic senator claire mccaskill and ohio senator portman. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." we'll be right back. f. we're invested in creating the world's first state-of-the-art drone testing facility in central new york and the mohawk valley, which marks the start of our nation's first 50-mile unmanned flight corridor. and allows us to attract the world's top drone talent. all across new york state, we're building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd.ny.gov.

and we are back. 64,000 americans died from drug overdoses last year. that's a 21% increase from 2015. the bulk of those reported deaths came from heroin or opioids. yesterday president trump announce add public health emergency directing federal agencies to use "every appropriate emergency authority to combat opioid and drug

abuse." but the declaration does not allocate new money for the effort. the head of the opioid commission says billions are needed, but that it's congress' job to find those funds. of course, the opioid epidemic is so much more than a funding fight in washington. countless communities across america are devastated by drugs. one of those places, huntington, west virginia. one of the films in our inaugural "meet the press" american film institute film festival follows the opioid crisis in huntington where the overdose rate is ten times the national average. the film is called "heroin" highlighting three women trying to break the town's horrid cycle of drug abuse. >> i'm not really sure what a plateau is going to look like. [ siren ] >> you know, i see this as a country-wide problem that has potential to bankrupt the country. >> we conservatively estimated

that the county, talking 96,000 people, probably about 100 million dollars paid in health care costs associated with i.v. drug use in 2015. one small county, in one small state. i don't -- i can't even fathom what it's going to look like when it plateaus. but i know it will be large. >> the filmmaker behind "heroin" and the huntington fire chief you just saw in the film from the clip. joining us from the fire station in huntington. thank you for joining me. appreciate it. jan, start with you. yesterday you heard the president, and you heard the announcement both what was coming and what isn't coming and i -- is anything changed for you today that you feel like you have more help to deal with this problem in huntington? >> well, i certainly think that it's an important first step for

us to take, and the fact that there were representatives from our state and our area there behind president trump at least there is a recognition of how bad the problem is, in that we need to do more for that. some of the things that were announced yesterday are going to help us. such as medicaid and medicare being allowed to be utilized for residents, or in resident programs for more than 16 beds. that's going to be a big help. but there's still so much to do. there's so many layers to this onion, but i welcome and support any first step and anything that we receive after that. >> let's talk about, to me it's -- we are, we've got a series of baby steps we have to do and haven't done them yet. elaine. >> yes. >> what are the baby steps you think if every member of congress saw this film, saw

"heroin" they would be running to do immediately? what do you believe your film would motivate them to do immediately? >> i think the film is mostly trying to create more empathy around this problem. i mean, i think that the average person may not realize how big of a problem this is and once it hits their backyard, they're going to realize it. the film is just adding to that conversation. clearly, there needs to be more money put towards this problem, more resources, more options. more detox beds. there's eight detox beds in the entire county area. that's a bottleneck for people trying to get into treatment here. so options. you know? you can't get yourself out of addiction without options to help yourself. so -- >> do you have -- if everybody in the county came and wanted help, help with detox, help with getting off of this addiction, could you handle -- could the

community handle that today? if everybody came in from the county and said i need help i got to get out of this, would you have the resources to treat those folks? >> absolutely not. we don't have the resources to treat those who want the help. the red tape to get in to long-term recovery is just enormous. you take somebody who is in withdrawals. they need to be detoxed before they can get into treatment. we have not enough treatment beds. we don't have enough out-patient resources as well. and you know, if somebody wants to go to rehab, they have to be medically cleared, and then detoxed. and it's such an arduous process, and both hospitals here in huntington, west virginia, are inundated. the e.r.s are clogged. they're overwhelmed. first responders are overwhelmed, and, you know, what

elaine's film has done is shed a light, and gave people a front-row view of what we are dealing with. what first responders around the country are dealing with. but, you know, we're trying to provide hope for people who need hope, to start the process for recovery, and when they have to wait one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks -- to get into just a local detox center, they're losing hope minute by minute. >> elaine, where did you discover these drugs were coming from? i mean, obviously, there's so many ways we have to tackle this addiction, but one is to stop the flow. >> yeah. i mean, well, it started with prescription pills. started with legal drugs, and in my hometown of logan, it was a a common thing growing up to see pill mills. once those got shut down, heroin comes from many places's from

mexico. from the middle east and then you see fentanyl actually manufactured in china, and jan can talk more about the strength of the fentanyl and how narcan is sometimes not even -- takes more than one dose or two doses sometimes to bring someone back. it's getting stronger. it's getting, people don't know what to expect sometimes with certain things that their buying. so scary. for jan as a first responder, they don't know what someone's overdosed on until they see the toxicology screens and that can come, i don't know. weeks later. it's hard to get on top of things, because they change so quickly. >> chief, i was -- we've seen all of the pictures of fema rushing in to a florida, rushing into a texas. rushing into a puerto rico, and what you two are describing and what elaine's film shows, this is a disaster. it sounds like we -- t. is.

>> sounds like we need a fema-like response. you need an inundation of first responders, sounds like. people from around the country. beds. temporary clinic beds. things like that. how do we create that mind-set? hey, think of this as a tornado came in and hit thousands of communities. how would the country respond? is that the mind-set we should have? >> i would love to see that mind-set, and i think that films like "heroin" are going to show the country that this is, this is how it is. you know, huntington is not necessarily ground zero. it looks like gound seround zer because we own the problem and are willing to talk about it, but this is happening all over the country. this is one small county, in one small state. you multiply what we spend daily, weekly, monthly on the medical cost alone from i.v.

drug use, it makes way more sense to provide recovery for those suffering from substance abuse disorder than to continue down this road where we're probably going to bankrupt the countries. >> well, that's maybe if -- pain if empathy doesn't motivate, maybe finances will. anyway, elaine mcmillan sheldon, chief jan rader. it's terrific, important and a poignant film. thank you for making it. "heroin" one of the 16 films screened at our first-ever "meet the press" film festival in collaboration with the american film institute. proud of it. happening november 13th right here in washington, d.c. tickets on sale now at nbcnews.com/mtpfilm. we'll be right back.

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potential trump thorns in the senate go away, the newest and most pickly could come there if you're the president. mitt romney. january 2019. senator romney? >> that would be interesting. you have to wonder which mitt you're getting. the mitt romney who solicited donald trump to endorse him when he was running? the mitt romney who really wanted to be secretary of state and was publicly humiliated a little bit in that beauty contest dinner pageant they had. or the mitt romney who spoke out forcefully after charlottesville and things like that. if you're donald trump, you probably would prefer not to have the potential thorn there and he could be a thorn. but tbd. >> what do you make of all this? >> i'll excited about it. you want to see romney. >> senator romney has a great --

not great to me. given the national debate about the future of the conservative movement and the future of republican party, what comes after trump is important that people like mitt romney have a big voice in that debate. and having him in the u.s. senate guarantees he'll have a big debate. i hope it comes to fruition. >> i'm never quite sure where mitt romney fits on the conservative scale. massachusetts, the last time he ran for the united states senate was in massachusetts. and he was extraordinarily liberal. i think he claimed he was to the left of ted kennedy. when he ran for governor of massachusetts, he shifted a little closer to the center. in utah he'll run as a conservative chflt is he defending inside the party? is it a larger definition of what main stream conservative is? >> i would say he's defending

qualities of decency and competence is capacity. these are things that donald trump has called into question. i agree with alex. i think it would be altogether to the benefit of the republican party if he were in the senate. and i think more so than orrin hatch. he is somebody who is a more contemporary figure, even though he is an older guy. and somebody who could be a very, very effective face for the party. >> look. he becomes a pretty big deal. it feels like not since hillary clinton entered in 2000 when you're going, you've seen bigger than the office. and mitt romney could seem bigger than the office. >> unlike hillary clinton, he will have been the nominee for the president. >> i guess it is like hubert humphrey when he went back to the senate. >> where does he vote on repealing and replacing the

affordable care act? it will be interesting. >> does steve bannon go after? we're talking about all this. does steve bannon go after him in the primary and can that work? >> i think steve bannon says he will go after everybody. he wants his candidates to be on the ballots every where. i don't think he'll have a single win. he has not shown an ability to go get a big win. >> he came in late. steve bannon has never recruited a candidate and then gotten them to a primary. let alone getting them to the general election and into office. he is totally untested. unproven. he gets if great press. if he can recruit someone in utah and run them against utah, color me impressed. >> i think the real question is how does he vote on the repeal and replacement of obama-ny

care. >> that's like three presidential campaigns ago. happy friday to you. up next, the force was strung at the white house briefing today and we're here to prove it. >> when i was a young reporter, i thought, being a reporter, you have no emotion. magic is pretty amazing. it can transform a frog into a prince. and sadness into happily ever after. but it can't transform your business. for that, you need dell technologies. 7 technology leaders now working together under one name.

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there were some folks in the white house briefing room who were not definitely abiding by the typical dress code. the usual attendees like darth vader and ray, tmaybe they'll gt

some answers. there was a unicorn sighting and some species of princess burn maybe? it is kind of hard to tell. whatever that is, she doesn't seem too impressed with her surroundings. >> a couple of witches, batman and a few friends whose parnltss are all members of the press core. went to the briefing rule to the oval office where they got official hershey's kisses and a picture with the president. it was all very nice even while making a few jokes at the expense of the parents. >> i cannot believe the media produced sufficient beautiful children. are you going to grow up to be like your parents? don't answer. that can only get me in trouble. >> how does the press treat you? you get treated better by the press than anybody in the world, right?

huh? i think so. >> oh, media jokes. not exactly a stretch from this white house. the more he jokes about the fraks the media, a reminder that probably his attacks are kind of made up on some of these things. we'll be back with more "mtp daily." "the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> thank you. we'll be watching on sunday. a break in the russia probe. the russians who met with top trump aids had a trail that directly linked back to the kremlin. this may sound familiar. many people believe those russians were linked to the kremlin and there has been public and circumstantial evidence to the kremlin including the previous nbc reporting. tonight "the new york times" is reporting on direct evidence that the russian lawyer offering dirt on clinton discussed her plot in advance with a key russian government official. and that official was the same