we appreciate it #very shi rhule. >> thank you for watching this hour of "velshi and ruhle." i'm stephanie rhule. >> i'm ali velshi. >> right now it's time for "andrea mitchell reports." >> right now, hand in hand with dictators. president trump wrapping his arms around the philippines' controversial strong man after slamming america's intelligence assessment that vladimir putin meddled in the 2016 election. >> i believe that president putin really feels and he feels strongly that he did not meddle in our election. what he believes is what he believes. what i believe is that we have to get to work. parental guidance, roy moore threatening to sue "the washington post" after initially offering this explanation to the charges that he dated teenage girls when he was a man in his 30s. on sean hannity's fox radio show. >> not generally, no. if i did, you know, i'm not going to dispute anything but i

don't remember anything like that. >> but you don't specifically remember having any girlfriend that was in her late teens even at that time. >> no, i don't remember that, and i don't remember ever dating any girl without the permission of her mother. >> and the next chapter. former vice president joe biden opening up about the loss of his son beau and his plans for 2020. >> i'm not closing the door. i've been around too long. i'm a great respecter of fate. and but who knows what the situation is going to be a year and a half from now. but you know, i don't know. honest to god, that's the truth. and good day. i'm andrea mitch in washington. president trump at the asian pacific summit manila following a heart to heart with putin about election meddling today praising philippines strong man duterte who referred to the press as spies when reporters

tried to press him on human rights abuses. >> we've had a great relationship. this has been very successful. in the asean conference has been handled beautifully by the president of the philippines and your representatives. and i've enjoyed being here. >> nbc white house correspondent halle jackson is traveling with the president in the philippines. hallie, the end of a long trip with a lot of bumps along the road and the latest is embracing duterte and the white house saying they did briefly discuss human rights. the philippines saying no, it didn't come up. >> reporter: right. and this is what has been a concern for i think advocates who wanted to see the president use this is moment on the world stage to talk specifically about the human rights abuses here. as you know, duterte is a controversial authoritarian leader oversees this bloody brutal crackdown on illegal drugs which has led to thousands of killings.

he's made comments about the assassination of journalists and he's joked, his administration says it was a joke about murdering somebody whether he he was younger. this is somebody who is not a traditional leader ally like you might see in other parts of the region. yet, the president and white house have talked about this friendly relationship between the two. i think you saw that here in manila. the two toasting. at one point duterte singing a love song in honor of the president, getting up on stage and delivering this duet with lyrics like you are the light of my life, the half of my heart. so clearly the two of them working on this relationship. the president seeming to hope the good chemistry leads to good policy. again, questions on why no mention of human rights abuses here. that is similar to what we saw from president trump in china, for example, and on past overseas trips. i'm thinking of the one, for example, over to saudi earlier in the year. back in may. the white house administration officials will say to me privately listen, we think it's

more productive to have these conversations behind closed doors. we think it is going to be ultimately better for us if we don't bring these human rights questions out onto the public stage. that is at least the administration's rationale behind it on what's been frankly a pretty busy 12 days for trump. one more day of the of activities and events here in the philippines before he hops on the plane back to your neck of the woods. >> and a quick question. what about what john kelly said about not paying attention to the tweets? the tweets about jim kong u.n. and all the rest? >> reporter: john kelly may not pay a ton of attention to it and may direct the white house staff to not pay attention but plenty of other people are paying attention, leaders see these tweets and it does raise some questions especially in the east arab yar region in places where we've seen the president on this trip. when the president says i'm not going to call kim jung un short

and fat it is incendiary language that frankly the president avoided when he was in seoul. remember that speech at the national assembly earlier on on this trip? he won praise for the tone of that delivery, sort of that sober assessment of the threat from north koreaing that very direct message to both kim jong-un and the north korean people laying out the contrast what is and what could be if the world were to confront the threat of north korea and take more action against pyongyang. you had that in the beginning half of the trip. the latter half of the trip, you saw the tweets that took some of the spin off of that speech or took some of the teeth out of that speech perhaps in the eyes of some critics. >> thank you so much. hallie jackson in manila today. joining me now, "new york times" washington investigations editor mark mazzeti, michael carpenter, and former foreign policy advisor to vice president joe biden and nbc senior national

security analyst juan sderotty. we have a powerhouse panel here. first to you, mark. so much going on including i should point out this big exclusive story headlining "the new york times" today on a huge breach at the nsa. talk first about vladimir putin and the take away of the president's criticism calling the former intelligence chiefs political hacks. >> right. and this, it's something that doesn't go away. it's been going on for almost a year now, the sort of battle between the president and the intelligence world over the assessment that russia had hacked the election. it had gone away for a while. but it came back when the president said that he essentially believed president putin in that in saying that the russians didn't hack the election. directly at odds with the widespread assumption that the conclusion of the intelligence community and he attacked directly the former spy chiefs.

so it's not something that wins him any favors with the intelligence community and it's certainly something that is going to continue to linger because you know, the whole issue of russia and the election isn't going away. >> and taking a look, juan sderotty and michael carpenter, you both worked in intelligence for different administrations, different presidents. but this is, if we cos scroll up to exactly what the president said on air force one, we have audio. we're not permitted to use the audio. there's no cameras. but what he said was, i mean, give me a break. they are political hacks. you have brannan, you have clapper, have you comey. comey's proven now to be a liar and he's proven to be a leaker so you look at that and you have president putin very strongly vehemently says he had nothing to do with that, meaning is the election. now the president after a lot of pushback, juan, did try to fix

it at the next news conference in hanoi. >> right. i think what he tried to do is backtrack and say i do agree with my own intelligence professionals who are now leading the intelligence community and tried to sort of separate the individuals from the intelligence community. you never want to see the blending of politics and international relations in this way. so that's problematic. i think the other challenge and mark referred to is, it resurrects all these questions yet again. it confuses what u.s. policy actually is with respect to russia. it undermines to a certain extent the sense of the president's faith and confidence in his own agencies which are critical when talking about not just the past but also the future, and i think it also distracts from the reality we have to the worry what russia and maybe even others may be doing to undermine democracy, not just in the united states but with our friends and allies around the world. so it's just an unhelpful set of talking points and issues, again

resurrected that takes us away from the substance of what should be the focus of the trip and the future threats from russia. >> and michael carpenter, this is what the president had to say when he was trying to sort of fix that record. he got to hanoi and he said that he basically was saying that putin believed it. not that he necessarily agreed as juan was just saying. he did at least endorse what pompeo said. then on the "today" show, joe biden was asked about this, about how to handle what the president said on foreign soil. let's play that. >> i'm reluctant to criticize the president when he's abroad. i don't believe putin. i don't believe putin at all. they did meddle. he was responsible for it. >> do you think the president is being naive or worse with regard to putin? >> i don't believe putin. >> he's being very careful about

it. >> i would say, i would like to disabuse people of the notion that the president is either gullible or naive. this is a conscious strategy. is he bending over backwards to try and placate putin and engender some form of too ration. we saw with a statement released on syria by trump and putin, this is laying the groundwork for some sort of ill conceived common collaboration in the syrian theater which would be a disaster. you have to remember russia partnered with hezbollah and the iranian cuds force. this is a very conscious messaging strategy by the president to try to get the united states slowly to engage in some form of collaboration or closer relations with putin. he's doing it for reasons that only he knows. but this is not gullibility or naivete. >> just to play devils advocate to all of you, we had the reset button with hillary clinton. we had john kerry trying are lavrov to get negotiations going for the future of syria acknowledging that assad is going to play some role if not

at least in the short term and that russia has to sign off on any exit of assad. so mark, how long is this different? >> well, i mean, certainly people think you should try to have constructive relationships with the russians. the big significant difference in this case is that there was this is attack on the election. there was the hacking and this as i said -- widespread belief in the intelligence community that the russians tried to disrupt a presidential campaign and are probably going to do it again. that's the backdrop of this and why it's different i think because the intelligence community is assessing that the russians basically did this offensive cyberattack. and the president doesn't want to the acknowledge it or doesn't seem to want to acknowledge it. and than -- and, of course, as we know the other added issue is there's this is ongoing federal investigation by the special prosecutor into whether any of mr. trump's associates had any

knowledge or any coordination with the russians. >> and what's lost in all of this juan, what he should be talking to the russians about on top of everything else is north korea. he's in asia. russia has not closed the backdoor. they aren't cracking down. we've got satellite pictures from vladivostok of russian ships in continuing supplies and the military buildup if not the cyber, as well to north korea. >> right. there has to be colder more sober confrontation of russian policy, not just with the north korea but even with iran which is a major focus for the administration. in the context of syria and the role that they're playing with iran and trying to retake territory. the human rights violations they've engaged in there, then the cyber dimension which is very important not just again for what's happened in the past but what for russia setting up for in the future. part of this challenge is i

think the president wants to create these personal relationships, this chemistry. you saw this with president xi. that has led him not to want to confront, not publicly and openly has led to some mistakes. >> and mark mazzeti, if you can quickly explain what has happened to the nsa as far as this big hack is concerned. >> my colleagues had a pretty extraordinary story today about the nsa and the work of the shadow brokers which is this group that hacked the nsa, stole a lot of their offensive cyber tools. they report about the really the mole hunt inside the nsa to sort of determine who did it and just how much damage was done to this agency which is the largest and most secret of the intelligence agencies. and the sense that they were violated so much by this hack that was hen had real damage. other governments were hacked. other companies, foreign companies were hacked with the very tools that the nsa had

created. >> wow. mark mazzeti, all of that on the "new york times" website. thank you so much. mark, michael carpenter and juan, thanks to all of you. breaking news out of alabama. mitch mcconnell calling for roy moore to quit the alabama senate race amidst allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor. latest from the alabama right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. 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. our country depends on it. thanks for the ride-along, captain! i've never been in one of these before, even though geico has been-

ohhh. ooh ohh here we go, here we go. you got cut off there, what were you saying? oooo. oh no no. maybe that geico has been proudly serving the military for over 75 years? is that what you wanted to say? mhmmm. i have to say, you seemed a lot chattier on tv. geico. proudly serving the military for over 75 years. you ok back there, buddy?

i think he should step aside. >> are you encouraging a write-in campaign with senator strange? >> that's an option we're looking at whether or not there is someone who could mount a write-in campaign successfully. >> would it be senator strange, do you think? >> we'll see. >> we're just about time. >> is the burden on moore to prove these false versus someone to prove these are true in this situation or do you believe these allegations to be true? >> i believe the women, yes. >> i believe the women, yes. that's the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell in kentucky now calling for alabama republican senate candidate roy moore to step aside saying he believes the women and that they are considering a write-in campaign. among the options which would be presumably luther strange, the sitting is appointed senator. joining me now nbc's vaughn hillyard has been covering all there from the beginning. me alcindor and jonathan

capehart, msnbc capehart. vaughn, you've been following this. you were in gadsden his hometown where there was support for roy moore even those saying if he did it whether he did it nor ot, he's better than a democrat. what are you finding now that you've gone onto birmingham? is there more diversity of opinion? >> yeah, on the ground, andrea among voters, the ones he has to target in suburbs here. al well educated millennials, women. some republicans is i've talked to specifically have suggested that they could potentially go as far as voting for a democrat, voting for doug jones. but what's interesting is we heard about the potential of a write-in candidate. the fact is we're hearing is something opposite on the ground here among the alabama gop officials. there's seven republican congressman in the state. none rescinded endorsement of roy moore. the governor is not going to

change the date of the election. perry hooper was the trump chairman for the campaign last year, originally a strange backer, still backing roy moore now. rnc committee flan alabama said unless there also inrefutable evidence against roy moore, the party is not going to remove him from being the republican candidate and if there is somebody like a luther strange who tries to run and potentially costs the republicans a ticket they should pack up their bags and move north of the mason dixon line. >> and jonathan capehart, what we heard last night from the roy moore and this was an event closed to the press. there is some video and audio of it where he threatened to sue "the washington post." let's play that. >> just three days ago, "the washington post" published another attack on my character and reputationing in an attempt, a desperate attempt to stop my political campaign. these attacks that i was involved with a minor child are

completely false and untrue and for which they will be sued. >> well, he's certainly a public figure and certainly "the washington post" reporting shows a lot of careful, careful work with four women on the record. now other women are coming forward, as well. temporaryiously saying they were aware of such reports about moore at the time. i know that you're on the editorial page which is very separate from the news gathering page but let's talk about the bigger issue of a lawsuit now threatened against "the washington post" for their reporting. >> look, i think my colleagues here on the news side at "the washington post" and our executive editor marty baron are not afraid of any lawsuit coming from roy moore. as you said, in your question, the key thing is, the four women in the story named in the story went on the record with what

happened to them and their interactions with roy moore. so if the former judge wants to take "the washington post" to court and deal with all of the legal processes that are involved in that, then i'm sure our attorneys here wore welcome the chance. i think the public would welcome the chance to hear what he has to say when it comes time for -- when it comes time for discovery and deposition. >> anya meesh, there's new facebook posts today i wanted to share those with viewers, as well. one is fromary jo west. she's a friend of the moore accuser, a friend of the family and her quote is that leigh's mother told me and others the roy moore story in the mid-1990s because her daughtering are finally unburdened herself after years of silence. that burden lay dark and deep on a mother's shoulders and in her heart. i listened to the same details as those that are printed now.

while some of the story has faded with time, several facts are seared into apply brain. one the attacker was attorney roy moore and the victim was then teenager leigh corfman. there's another tweet from the teresa jones. she was a deputy d.a. in gadsden did, the town where moore was then the prosecutor and she said as a deputy d.a. in gadsden when roy moore was there, it was common knowledge about his propensity for teenage girls. i'm appalled these women are being secured for the truth. raising the question as to whether or not this is a classic blame the victim. >> i think that both "the washington post" in their reporting on roy moore and i would say "the new york times" on our reporting on harvey weinstein, reporters take very carefully these accusations. as a result, that's why you have the reports and stories of the people around these women saying yes, this really happened contemporaneously. i would say that that also was the case when we were doing reporting on now president trump

and talking about the women accusing him of acting inappropriately. in each of these cases not only did these women go on the record republican risk their reputations and reporters pushed them to find people who could say what was happening. what's remarkable is not so much that mish mccobble is calling for royal moore to leave the race because mcconnell was not a fan of his before this, but the tact that the people in the state and the congressmen who are representing alabama that they have not pulled their endorsement. that shows to me as a political reporter i would bet on roy moore winning the senate seat because the -- if the people in alabama are still sticking behind him, those are the people that matter most. it doesn't matter what the republican establishment in d.c. thinks. if voters are lined him, he's going to be seated. >> there was some suggestion from pat toomey on "meet the press" with chuck todd of not seating him or taking other action. there's been a diversity of

reaction from republicans in the caucuses how to deal with this if he is elected. what was so startling to a lot of them and where the defense of him tanked was after his initial interview with sean hannity, certainly not a hostile interviewer on fox radio on friday. let me play that. >> would it be unusual for you as a 32-year-old guy to have dated a woman as young as 17? that would be a what, 15-year difference or a girl 18? do you remember dating girls that young at that time? >> not generally, no. if i did, you know, i'm not going to dispute anything but i don't remember anything like that. >> but you don't specifically remember having any girlfriend that was in her late teens even at that time? >> no, i don't remember that. and i don't remember ever dating any girl without the permission of her mother. >> jonathan capehart? >> i mean, what do i do with that? without the permission of her

mother? that right there is a red flag. also a red flag in our story in the "washington post" is the fact that when he went on a couple of those dates, he didn't pick the young woman up at her home. he picked her up around the corner from her house. i think you know, roy moore is -- should be in serious political trouble. but to pick up on i think it was what yameche was saying or maybe vaughn. the fact that the senate majority mitch mcconnell has called on him to quit the race and says he believes the women, i think doesn't hurt roy moore at all because this race in alabama as we have seen has been set up as a battle within the republican party between the republican establishment and the steve bannon wing of the republican party. >> wow, we have to leave it there. thanks to jonathan, yamiche alcindor and, of course, our

friend vaughn hillyard down in alabama. great work down there, vaughn. thank you. coming up, two former intel chiefs criticizing president trump over his muddled messages on russian interference in the campaign. the top democrat on the house intelligence committee adam schiff joins me next. stay with us.

♪ spread a little love today ♪ spread a little love my-y way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ philadelphia cream cheese. made with fresh milk and real cream makes your recipes their holiday favourites. the holidays are made with philly. i knew at that exact moment, whatever it takes, wherever i have to go...i'm beating this. my main focus was to find a team of doctors that work together. when a patient comes to ctca, they're meeting a team of physicians that specialize in the management of cancer. breast cancer treatment is continuing to evolve. and i would say that ctca is definitely on the cusp of those changes. patients can be overwhelmed ... we really focus on taking the time with each individual patient so they can choose the treatment appropriate for them. the care that ctca brings is the kind of care i've wanted for my patients. being able to spend time with them, have a whole team to look after them is fantastic. i empower women with choices.

it's not just picking a surgeon. it's picking the care team, and feeling secure where you are. surround yourself with the team of breast cancer experts at cancer treatment centers of america. visit cancercenter.com/breast the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains. global markets may be uncertain... but you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. call us or your advisor... t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

. >> to impugn the character of somebody like jim clapper on veterans day who has dedicated so much of his life to this country i just find that outrageous and something that i think that the -- that mr. trump should be ashamed of but it doesn't seem as though anything he does he feels any shame whatsoever. >> former cia director john brennan on cnn after president trump called the former intelligence chief's political hacks this weekend for their agency's assessment that russia did meddle in the 2016 election. joining us now, congressman adam schiff, top democrat on the house intelligence committee. congressman, thank you very much. just following the course correction also of the way the president treated vladimir putin on this trip this weekend was pretty remarkable. your reaction? >> well, the whole thing is remarkable and remarkably bad.

here you have the president of the united states meeting with a foreign adversary basically saying i not only accept mr. putin at his word but it's insulting to mr. putin to raise these things. and these other people of the contrary view who happen to be the former heads of u.s. intelligence agencies they're a bunch of hacks. it really unthinkable and while this does some more damage to the intelligence community, it mostly damages the president himself. it impeaches his own credibility. people know director clapper, director brannan. and have enormous confidence and faith in them within the intelligence community and without. and we now have a situation where the president of the united states says well, i raised the russian meddling issue during the meeting and they're saying no, he didn't. the white house saying he raised with the philippine autocrat human rights abuses and they're saying no he didn't.

honestly, we don't know who to believe. who would imagine a situation, andrea, where people around the world our allies and foes alike don't know whether they can believe the word of the president of the united states. this is what he's brought on himself. >> and senator mccain's tweet about all of in this weekend was that there's nothing america first about taking the word of kgb colonel putin over u.s. intelligence community. there is no principled realism in many cooperating with russia to prop up murderous assad regime. to do so places national security at risk. then you had the president at a news conference in vietnam trying to sort of correct the record saying well, let's take a look at this. >> i'm surprised that there's any conflict on this. what i said there is that i believe he believes that. that's very important for somebody to believe. i believe that he feels that he and russia did not meddle in the election. as to whether i believe it or not, i'm with our agencies

especially as currently constituted with their leadership. i believe in our intel agencies. >> as currently constituted. so i mean he had also in disagreeing with the conclusion about the 2016 campaign he also dissed his own intelligence, his own dci, the director pompeo and the intelligence community dan coats and what all of them have been saying ever since. >> this is exactly right, andrea. he's saying beak the intelligence agencies are just political agencies. and i couldn't believe them because those career professionals like clapper and brannan who served the country for 30 or 50 years respectively, well, you just can't trust them because they're part of a political establishment. now i've got my own political establishment and doing my own politte skafths intelligence communities. that's a horrible message that nobody within the ic believes or accepts. but it denigrates the agencies

nonetheless. this is just how he operates. there's this is constant motif, everything that came before me was awful and bad and wrong and we were dupes. and now everything is great. but he goes overseas, he doesn't put the country first as john mccain said and i made the same observation immediately when i learned of his comments. he's putting putin and putting his own, donald trump's own narrow personal self-interest before the country. and that is a terrible quality to have in the president of the united states. >> and after an insult from kim jong-un, calling him either old or a lew na tick or some such thing, a dotard he tweeted to squim jong ung why would he insult me old when i would never call him short and fat. oh, well, i try so hard to be his friend and maybe some day that will happen. trying to figure out how that advances relations in the region against north korea. >> well, it doesn't.

here's the thing. there are things that we can doing constructively and need to be doing working with our allies in concert bringing broader pressure to bear on chinaton crack down on north korea. and nothing the president is doing is helping with that. and the clock is ticking, time is not on our side here. the north koreans continue to make progress with their missile program with their nuclear program. we need to have everything going in the right direction working together within the administration and with our allies. and when we're engaged in petty insult exchanges with the north korean dictator in which case you can't tell who is saying it, is that the president of the united states saying it or the north korean despot saying it, that is not serving our national interests, and unfortunately, it's not as if the world is standing still while all this is going on. i think our place in the world, our leadership in the world is receding and our security is receding along with it. >> thank you very much,

congressman schiff, for being with us. when you were all in session, it's going to be a busy week in house intel. >> it is. >> on the senate side, senator rapid paul announcing he is returning to work today after sustaining six broken ribs and lung damage as a result of an alleged assault by his neighbor. senator paul tweeting this morning kelly and i want to thank everyone once again for your thoughts and prayers for my recovery. while i'm still in a today deal of pain, i will be returning to work in the senate today ready to fight or liberty and help move forward with tax cuts in the coming days and weeks. coming up next, "veep" joe biden isn't rolling out -- ruling out a run at the top of the ticket in 2020. highlights from the former vice president's exclusive appearance on the "today" show next right here. stay with us. let's take a look at some numbers:

4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened and help take control of your health. we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries... for plaque which builds up as you age- and increases your risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease. and by getting them through this package, you're saving over 50%. so call today and consider these numbers: for just $149 you'll receive five screenings that could reveal what your body isn't telling you.

i'm gonna tell you that was the best $150 i ever spent in my life. life line screening. the power of prevention. call now to learn more.

with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis? how do you chase what you love do what i did. ask your doctor about humira. it's proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common,

and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ready for a new chapter? talk to your rheumatologist about humira. this is humira at work. of joe biden is back in an exclusive four-hour appearance with his wife jill on the "today" show and also megyn kelly today, biden opened up about his new memoir "promise me dad," just out tomorrow where he writes about the death of his son beau and his decision not to run in 2016. on "today," he left the door saying he has not decided whether he will jump into the 2020 race answering questions from a studio audience, about his age, his family, including his take on president trump's performance after a year in the white house. >> what is one thing if any that you believe he's doing well as president. >> well, you know, i think

there's a number of things that he's doing well. but even the things he's doing well is how he does them. i do think there are things he's doing well. i think he's -- but it's more the tone of this administration that bothers me. there's a lot of the country that's still functioning. for example, the choice of keeping the military personnel that we left behind in place in the middle east was very, very important. he hasn't changed that policy. and he's copied that policy. i think he's doing that very well. >> what changes do you think the democratic party needs to make in order to be successful in 2018 and 2020. >> i'm referred to in washington in the last 20 years as middle class joe. it means i'm not sophisticated. but i think there's real reason why a lot of middle class people are legitimately concerned. and i think there are answers and. last election what happened was because it was such a mosh pit

in terms of hillary's inability to be able to, not her, she tried but to get the message out about the middle class, about what she was going to do about education, what she was going to doing about child care what, she was going to do about these things. and the middle class is i think we have to respond and let them know there's significant hope. >> just and i formal poll quickly. does it sound like he's running? raise your hand. >> if you missed it, he just did the sign of the cross. >> and there was this moment, a moment of shared personal grief with a mother in the audience who talked to biden opening up about how he copes with losing a child after she shared her experience. >> as a mother who are has lost two kids to gun violence. >> god love. >> you what advice would you give to families and parents

that are dealing with the pain and hurt the loss of their children? >> mom, you're the very person i've been talking about. there's so many people out there who have suffered more than jill and i have suffered. and get up every single day and just put one foot in front of the other and my guess is you've done the same thing i've done. you looked at what your sons would be doing and what they cared about and you're devoting your life to doing that. >> joe biden, the entire interview of course, is online. and take a look at it. it's very instructive. meanwhile, at least 414 people now declared dead when 6,000 injured after a 7.0 magnitude quake struck between the border of iran and iraq. rescuers scrambling to find survivors trapped under collapsed buildings but they were hindered in many areas by landslides. residents were told to stay outside their homes because there have been more than 100 aftershocks.

the death toll expected to rise. coming up, the da vinci code, what is a secret behind a genius like effective did vincechy. ta stay with us on msnbc. quick question. do you want the same tools and seamless experience across web and tablet? yes? great! then you're ready for power e*trade. the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. sweet! e*trade. the original place to invest online.

there's nothing more important than your health. so if you're on medicare or will be soon, you may want more than parts a and b here's why. medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. you might want to consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like any medicare supplement insurance plan, these help pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay.

and, these plans let you choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. you could stay with the doctor or specialist you trust... or go with someone new. you're not stuck in a network... because there aren't any. so don't wait. call now to request your free decision guide and find the aarp medicare supplement plan that works for you. there's a range to choose from, depending on your needs and your budget. rates are competitive. and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. like any of these types of plans, they let you apply whenever you want. there's no enrollment window... no waiting to apply. so call now. remember, medicare supplement plans

help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay. you'll be able to choose any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. whether you're on medicare now or turning 65 soon, it's a good time to get your ducks in a row. duck: quack! call to request your free decision guide now. because the time to think about tomorrow is today.

we're living in an age when the trump white house is denying climate change, disbanding scientific panels at key regulatory agencies and appointing nonscientists to other points. at a time when innovation and creativity are not valued we can learn lessons by looking at the era about what it means to be a renaissance man and leonardo da vinci. joining me walter isaacson, his new book is number one on the "new york times" best seller list for a third week in a row just after publication. congratulations and thank you for joining us. >> it's great to be back with you. >> well, i think people would be fascinated to read what leonardo wrote. he was a 30-year-old writing to the ruler of milan applying for a job. and as you recount, he wrote ten

paragraphs touting his skills designing bridges, waterways, cannon, armored vehicles. he listed artist as an after thought. what does this tell you about the quality and range of his genius? >> leonardo genius. >> leonardo wanted to know anything you could possibly know and wanted to try everything you could possibly try. he wanted to be an engineer. he wanted to be an anatomyist, he he wanted to study waterflow and be a painter and sculptor. it was that ability to hop around to all sorts of disciplines instead of doing what we do to our kids sometimes these days and say, you have to specialize, you have to just keep focused on one field. i think by loving every single part of the infinite works of nature, he was able to make himself more creative. he saw patterns and he was able to appreciate how science and art connected and how the humanities and technology connected. >> and you've learned so much about him from his notebooks, thousands and thousands of

pages. in his notebooks of how he created, you see his -- on the paper, he was looking at cadavers, sketching. and then not just -- his envision but sketching from having gone to the morgue, bisected, dissected cadavers before he even started painting and sculpting. even to learn how to do the smile. >> one of the most amazing things about leonardo is being able to go page by page through his awesome notebooks. they're scattered around the world from, you know, paris and venice and milan to seattle, where bill gates owns the scientific -- one of the scientific notebooks. if you look, he crammed so much on a page and you're just showing the man, the guy in the circle in the square. that shows the connection of art to science. that sort of symbolic of how do we fit into the earth? how do we fit into all of

creation? that's a self-portrait of leonardo, with that intense stare, that beautiful athletic body he had and the golden curly hair. there he is on those notebook pages, continually trying to discover things and then saying, how do we fit in? what is our role in this life? and that's why leonardo is more than just an artist. he's somebody that we can say, all right, let's try to be curious like leonardo, let's try to be observant like him and let's care about the facts being skeptical about things, challenging things, and sometimes, as he did often, revising our own beliefs and theories based on new evidence we discover. that was something we used to be very able to do in this nation. >> what about him as an outsider, born out of wedlock but his biological father permitting him, encouraging him, enabling him to study, to learn.

and the facts of his life had he not been born out of wedlock in florence, he would have been forced into the family business, which was a notary. >> right. as you said, he has the good luck to be born out of wedlock otherwise he would be a notary like his father, grand foreand gre grandfather. he's blurring the distinction between innovation and observation which is not exactly what you want your notary to be. secondly, he didn't go to university. he wasn't crammed with the dusty old scholastic studies of the middle ages. instead, he's born the same year that guttenberg opens a print shot. so, leonardo gets to be self-taught through experiments and through reading books. and so you see him thinking for himself. and this is what the renaissance is about. this is where innovation comes from, where you challenge the preconceived wisdom but you say, i'm going to be guided by the facts.

. >> the other piece of this is that florence was so tolerant. he was gay and he was actually in competition with a younger painter, michelangelo, about to have this great new exhibit at the met in new york. the fact that these men were able to explore all of their lives and not be ostracized or discriminated against. >> leonardo, as you said, was a misfit. he was left-handed, he was illegitimate, he was gay, he was somewhat, you know, skeptical and radical at times, he was a vegetarian for part of his life. and the cool thing about florence in the late 1400s when leonardo gets there from the village of vinci, is that it becomes a cradle of creativity because it's perfectly comfortable with the people, steef jobs would say, here are to the misfits, the rebel, the

square peg in the round hole, to be different. if you can be that way, say, we have all sorts of people, people coming in from constantinople, we have fur traders, and bankers, and jewelry makers, working with chemists, working with artists to create great architecture like the dome on the cathedral. all of this comes from a live and let live attitude that says, if you're talented, if you're cool, if you're really trying sxhard hard and innovative, we don't care where you came from. we really embrace this sort of mix of people. that's what florence was like. that's why it becomes a cradle of the renaissance. that's why leonardo, even as this 12-year-old who arrives there from the village of vinci, gets to thrive in a place where he's beloved, even though he's a bit of a misfit. >> very quickly, walter, you've

done jobs, you've done einstein, you've done ben franklin. is this your favorite genius? >> yeah. i've tried to culminate -- his creativity, how do achieve it, steve jobs, ben franklin, but leonardo is that pinnacle of that mountain. he's someone we can relate to. he's not like einstein where you'll never do the math the way he did. leonardo had a little trouble with math but he still loved the beauty of everything from -- in science and in nature and in art. and he taught us, we can be a little more that way by just pausing, being very curious about things, being very observant and being open to mystery. >> well, it's an incredible achievement. leonardo leonardo, thank you very much. no, i'm good. come on, moe. i have to go. (vo) we always trusted our subaru impreza would be there

for him someday. ok. that's it. (vo) we just didn't think someday would come so fast. see ya later, moe. (vo) the subaru impreza. the longest-lasting vehicle in its class. more than a car, it's a subaru.

the uncertainties of hep c. wondering, what if? i let go of all those feelings. because i am cured with harvoni. harvoni is a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. it's been prescribed to more than a quarter million people. and is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who have had no prior treatment with 12 weeks. certain patients can be cured with just 8 weeks of harvoni. before starting harvoni, your doctor will test to see if you've ever had hepatitis b, which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after harvoni treatment. tell your doctor if you've ever had hepatitis b, a liver transplant, other liver or kidney problems, hiv or any other medical conditions and about all

the medicines you take including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with harvoni can cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. common side effects of harvoni include tiredness, headache and weakness. ready to let go of hep c? ask your hep c specialist about harvoni.

i'm out of time. yasmin is up next right here on msnbc. >> have a great rest of your day. let's get started from msnbc headquarters in new york, i'm in for craig melvin. lots of stories we are following this hour. a call to resign. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says alabama candidate roy moore should step aside after allegations he assaulted a 14-year-old girl decades ago. moore, though, not backing down. and foreign policy fumble. president trump fails to call out human rights abuses, calls