to keep our community safe. before you do any project big or small, pg&e will come out and mark your gas and electric lines so you don't hit them when you dig. call 811 before you dig, and make sure that you and your neighbors are safe. hi, everybody. it's 4:00 here in washington. i'm peter alexander in for my friend nicolle wallace. the president now heading back to the white house from florida where, for most of the weekend he stayed off the golf course and on twitter, erupting saturday in a stunning multi-day tweet storm, ignited by the

latest round of indictments in the russia investigation. as "the new york times" writes, quote, president trump began the weekend believing something good had just happened to him, an indictment leveled against 13 russians for interfering with the 2016 election, had not accused him or anyone around him of wrongdoing. but the president's mood began to darken as it became clear to him that some commentators were portraying the indictment as nothing for him to celebrate. those commentators called it proof that he had not won the election on his own. that coverage kicked off a series of false and misleading statements from president trump, defending his victory and denying that he colluded with russia. here are some of the highlights. quote, if it was the goal of russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the u.s., then with all of the committee hearings, investigations and party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. he writes, they are laughing their assess off in moscow. get smart, america.

then the biggest whopper of the weekend, the president tweeting, i never said russia did not meddle in the election. it said it may be russia or china or another country or group or a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer. president trump, you're ignoring the facts trying to reframe his use of one of his go-to terms, hoax. he wrote, the russian hoax was that the trump campaign colluded with russia. it never did. trump's tweets spread the blame all over, taking aim at nearly a dozen people and institutions, democrats and congress, former president obama, his own justice department, his national security advisor, even oprah this morning. but what his critics found most appalling was this attack on the fbi for missing a tip about the suspected florida shooter. even as funerals are still being held for the victims, three more today. the president wrote, very sad that the fbi missed all the many signals sent out by the florida school shooter. this is not acceptable. they are spending too much time

trying to prove russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion. get back to the basics and make us all proud. of course, the special counsel's investigation which is run separately from the main justice department and certainly from the fbi's florida field office, had nothing to do with the missed tip. and it doesn't appear that the president is planning on winding down any of this any time soon. a new tweet within the last hour blaming his predecessor on this president's day. quote, obama was president up to and beyond the 2016 election, so why didn't he do something about russian meddling? let's get right to our guests from "the new york times," michael schmidt, also an msnbc analyst. with me on set, washington post white house bureau chief and msnbc analyst philip rucker. betsy woodruff, daily beast. michael steele on the end for us. former house speaker boehner and advisor to jeb bush. i want to start about michael

schmidt about the president's latest tweet. walk us through the allegation. what the obama administration did or didn't do. i was there in the news conference when he said he told vladimir putin to cut it out. he warned of consequence if they went further with this. the president said, in fact, his administration was ham strung to do more on russia. >> yeah, i think what the obama administration would say, they were in an incredibly difficult position. if they called out russia and made a larger issue of it, then trump would have used it against them and said, look, the system is rigged. it would be playing into trump's hands. on the other hand, they realized if they didn't do anything it would allow the interactions to continue. they found themselves in a difficult decision, went with the decision to sort of say a little bit publicly the same day as the access hollywood video came out. at that point there was little they could do. the e-mails were already made. this was an attempt to divert

the attention. the president thought initially this indictment would be a good thing for him because it does not say anything about his campaign colluding with russia, but at the same time he grew increasingly frustrated over the weekend as he saw that the narrative had not gone the way that he thought, that people were saying, well, look, this isn't a hoax. there is really something here. i think that is the source of frustration that is leading the president to do and tweet the things that he is. >> philip, what strikes me here is in one of the tweets the president says of the fbi, make us proud. the fbi, the justice department, robert mueller's special counsel investigation, had just determined with authority that russia meddled in our election and told the world about it. seemed like for a lot of people they had just made americans proud right now. the president's only attack is directed at his predecessor on this day as well as so many others. >> that's right, peter. and more than a dozen tweets over the weekend. and the one place where he didn't put any focus was on russia. he didn't say anything about what the u.s. government might do to try to punish russia. he didn't say anything about

additional sanctions or any other measures. and we know just from following this president over the last 13 months, the administration has really done nothing to try to take russia to task for what it did in the election. >> you have report forgive behind the scenes this weekend. the president didn't play golf. we think he likely played golf today, spent several hours at his international golf course down there. so, what was happening behind the scenes? who was the president talking to, his sort of mar-a-lago kitchen cabinet as it were? >> that's right. the mar-a-lago kitchen cabinet. he was ensconced at mar-a-lago for 48 hours friday night until sunday night mostly watching cable television, hanging out with his friends. he was serving club members, what he might do about gun control. he was complaining about the russia coverage. he was watching tv and feeling angry and fuming and tsuistewin. he had dinner with geraldo

rivera who promotes conspiracy theories. >> let's reframe the conversation the way he demonstrates the way it didn't happen. i said it may be russia or china or another country or group or 400 pound genius sitting in bed playing with his computer. the russia hoax was that the trump campaign colluded with russia, it never did let's play what the president did say over the course of the last many months. take a listen. >> i don't think anybody knows it was russia broke into the dnc. they're saying russia, russia, russia. maybe it was. could also be china, could be lots of other people. could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. i'm here today to tell you the whole russian thing, that's a ruse. that's a ruse. 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. the russians did not affect the vote, and everybody seems to think that. it's a democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election. >> the president is now trying to suggest, i was just saying, suggesting that our team colluded is what the hoax is. on 44 separate occasions in some form, he's used this idea of hoax or witch hunt and it's clear that he was trying to diminish or discredit this investigation at large, and the idea that russia did this. >> that's right. the claim the president made in this tweet is obviously on its face incorrect. part of the reason, i think, that he's pushed this so hard and for so long is because based on every public statement the president's made, based on every way that he talks about this issue, it's clear that he is not capable of separating this broader question of investigations into russian activity in the 2016 election from himself. he can't perhaps make sense of the fact that people would be

interested in potential russian meddling in the american election season for reasons other than trying to politically undercut him or trying to undermine the outcome of the election or suggest that he doesn't deserve to be president. he sees those two separate questions as one and the same thing and that's why he has to characterize this entire question as just a hoax. >> and michael steele, some are writing from the columnist, calling this an egregious moment frankly of presidential leadership. imagine if george bush didn't pickup the bull horn and started blaming congressional democrats or blaming anybody on american soil, not the people who perpetrated this on our democratic system. what is the challenge for republican leaders in congress and frankly around this country that even in this moment we have a vacuum of presidential leadership and calling out the russians? >> there is no doubt that president trump is failing a test of presidential leadership here. and right now his inability to face reality, to face rationally

respond to this investigation to the facts of what russia did in the election is like a black hole that threatens to blot out everything else he's done and everything else that's happened in washington. there is a good record to tell here. tax reform, rising wages, more jobs, isis on the run, the individual mandate repeal. that's a record you can run on that's not a record you can run on if you're talking about russia. >> you know what goes on behind the scenes when you work with republican leadership. you worked for a long time with house speaker boehner, there is a new speaker of the house of course, paul ryan. he was with the president yesterday at mar-a-lago. if you were advising him, what would you tell him to tell the president behind closed doors or do you have any guidance on what that conversation might have sounded like? >> i think at this point the house and senate are going to put their heads down and try to work on what they can work on, get things done for the american people and ignore as much as possible the president and this issue, but the bipartisan senate investigation continues. let that bipartisan house investigation to the extent they remain bipartisan continue. do work for the people. >> that's generous to suggest the house intelligence

committee's investigation is still bipartisan at this point. we'll see if it exists in some form going forward. let me ask this to mike the schmidt if i can. this is another one of the president as tweets. he writes, very sad that the fbi missed all the many signals sent out by the florida school shooter. this is not acceptable. they are spending too much time trying to prove russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion get back to the basics and make us proud. we walked through their for a litt -- through this for a little bit. the president is suggesting robert mueller's investigation is stealing resources away from the miami, florida field office that may have missed a tip, as awful as that is, in its investigation of a school shooter. can you help people understand how this is disconnected from the facts? >> yes. i mean, look, the fbi is a massive organization that has all sorts of divisions and narratives, it has thousands of agents, tens of thousands of employees. and it's sort of hard to believe that one thing would influence

the other. we don't know how many agents are working on mueller's investigation. my guess is it probably is not higher than at least two dozen. if those two dozen agents were deployed differently, my guess is that they would be working on counter -- other counter intelligence matters that the russia investigation is soaking them up for. i'm not really sure that would have an influence. i think one of the issues that the fbi has is that it is very -- it receives an enormous amount of information every day about a wide range of things. and that creates a very difficult challenge for it to determine how to run down those leads. and at times they make significant mistakes that come with that. i think that is probably more along the lines of where the problem is, and it's not necessarily something that has anything to do with resources. >> phil, i want to bring you back in on this. this is what thomas friedman wrote in "the new york times" that caught our attention. i'll put it up on the screen if you missed it. either president trump is compromised by the russians or a towering fool. he's shown himself unwilling to

defend america against a russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy. he adds, trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself or he's criminally incompetent to be commander in chief. it is impossible yet to say which explanation for his behavior is true. but it seems highly likely that one of these scenarios explains trump's refusal to respond to russia's direct attack on our system, acquiescence that is simply unprecedented for any u.s. president in history. russia is not our friend. it has acted in a hostile manner and trump keeps ignoring all of it. philip, he calls this a code red in this column. you, like me at the white house, talk to a lot of people behind the scenes around the president. one of the questions that goes unanswered is why. we get that he wants to protect his own brand and the fact that he doesn't want that to appear discredited or undermined. why is the president being so overly generous to vladimir putin and the russians here? >> donald trump, even before he took office, has had this sort of visceral reaction to anything

involving russia. he thinks to mention the interference with undermine the legitimacy of his election and therefore of his presidency. and there's been an unspoken rule inside the white house that you just don't bring this up with him. if the intelligence briefings, intelligence officials will sometimes leave the russia details in their written briefings so they don't have to have the oral discussion with the president about it. there's been no national security council senior meeting about russian interference or what to do about it. >> literally he tweeted to say, hey, we had these indictments out, it's been confirmed, national security advisor -- what did he say, it's without dispute, right? >> the president is just unwilling to really engage the seriousness of the merits here because he takes it so personally. >> betsy? >> the other piece that is important is the enormous indifference of how president trump talks about russia and how everyone else does. h.r. mcmaster talked about it --

nikki haley has been no shrinking violet on russia's influence in syria. mike pence over the course of the last year or so has been very vocal about his concern what russian incursions mean for the ukraine. it's not just a question of the trump administration. it really comes down to him as an individual. >> michael, in some circles this becomes a question of competence, no? >> it's a question of come p/e 2e7bs, a questi -- competence, a question of loyalty. we are seeing states and cities going back to paper ballots to protect the sanctity of our balance. we see grappling with the disinformation with the campaign. there is nothing to guarantee 2018 won't be interfered with as badly or worse than 2016 if we don't start working 0 not this issue. >> michael, before we say good-bye, to put a punctuation, we saw top spies lined up before congress last week. they all agree, the bottom line is russia has been doing it. not only that, they say russia is actively working to do it

again. >> i think that one of the significant things about the indictment is just the bare facts ever it in the way it sort of helps the public understand what went on. hopefully the public would want mueller to look at it as an unpolitical document that lays out what happened. mueller probably realizes he has to have the public on his side to understand where he's coming from if he's going to move forward. and by laying the facts out by that it probably helps him. >> michael schmidt for "the new york times," we thank you. our panel, you guys will stay with us a little bit. when we come back the president spent his weekend lashing out at afternoon from oprah to his national security advisor. u.s. officials who actually are focused on the threat from russia reportedly spent the weekend reassuring our european allies to, quote, pay no attention to the man tweeting behind the curtain. also ahead, is robert mueller close to flipping another key witness? news about the president's former deputy campaign manager, and who he's reportedly ready to

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we would love to have a cyber dialogue when russia is sincere about detailing its sophisticated form of espionage. as you can see with the fbi indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain. >> that was president trump's national security advisor h.r.

mcmaster breaking with his boss this weekend, holding russia accountable for its attack on american democracy. and the president, he was watching. he noticed, firing back as part of that weekend-long tweet storm writing, quote, general mcmaster forgot to say the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the russians and that the only collusion was between russia and crooked h. -- remember the old phrase for hillary clinton -- the dnc and the dems. remember the dirty dossier, uranium, speeches and e-mails. mcmaster was one of the officials in munich, germany this weekend, to send this message to world leaders. ignore the president's tweets. joining us now is doug, former senior advisor to the dnc. doug, let me start with you quickly. we know the president and h.r. mcmaster has clashed before. heck, he's clashed with a lot of people in his own administration, even within his own west wing right now.

what should h.r. mcmaster expect when he gets home? he finally said what a lot of americans were hoping the president would say. >> probably if it's donald trump's m.o., will be to float stories that maybe he's going to be fired, that he's on the outs -- >> president quoted months in the past. >> right. we heard from secretary tillerson months ago when he talked about how he wanted to negotiate with north korea and then he was undermined by the president. and then he had series of stories on whether he was going to survive. we've seen that with attorney general. so, i imagine that there's going to be a series of weeks out of the white house which question whether or not h.r. mcmaster may stick around. but thankfully, you know, he did say the truth, which is that there is incontrovertible evidence of russia's impact on this election. i believe that it had a major impact, both -- maybe be so much in turning on changing votes, but it certainly affected the

discussion around the election in 2016. it ham strung the dnc. it did a lot of things that helped donald trump. >> what strikes me is we've now passed the year anniversary since the president's only solo formal news conference. i was there in the front row and i asked him about the electoral college, his numbers. we fact checked him in real time. at the end of the exchange, i said to him. you're the president. so, he's the president now. so, it doesn't matter that everybody else is saying this. he's the president. why be defensive about how you got here? now act on all of our behalves behind the scene. what do aides say? when h.r. mcmaster says publicly, are they anticipating this lashing? is that the good cop, bad cop routine the white house plays? >> privately officials in the white house are in agreement with what h.r. mcmaster said in germany the other day. the problem is the president doesn't like to hear that. he doesn't want to hear any

acknowledgment of a theory that gives him the victory other than his own charisma, his own ability as a president. he takes it personally and it's hard for him to process it. >> are they stunned by what they are seeing and hearing from this president when it comes to russia? they're the ones overseas that have to have these conversations back and forth with their foreign counterparts. >> i think an important piece of this to remember is that the emerging rift in the republican party over these russia questions is not necessarily a brand-new one, although trump, of course, has put gasoline on the fire. when we look at national security officials, part of the issue here for the trump administration is some of his national security posts were vacant until even quite recently. it was only in the last few weeks that the justice department got its own assistant attorney general for national security, rand paul, who sometimes thinks similarly to the way that trump does on these questions of american influence and the russia issue.

rand paul had a hold on korv confirmation of the top security official at the d.o.j. and played a significant role in slowing that down. so, of course, is there absolutely criticism and frustration within the ranks of career national security officials when it comes to trump? yes. but these issues are complex. they're not going away. and after trump is gone, it's possible some of these tensions will percolate some. we have >> we have to pay attention. the burden of donald trump's national security staff. michael steele, i'm coming to you. it says, you can have an hour-long conversation with someone serving in a national security billet and they can tell you about problems without mentioning the name of the president they are serving unless i bring it up. it's almost as if they are trying to serve this country in spite of their president rather than threw him right now. how challenging is it for this administration, for those that represent this country broadly around the world right now, to effectively say, pay no attention to what that guy is

saying? i'm really trying to speak on behalf -- this is what he means? >> it's awful because you have people who are patriots, people are trying to protect the country, people are trying to get our economy stronger who are simultaneously trying to conserve the constitution of the united states and serve a president who lives any air legal reality. a president who has a yawning gap, a need to believe that things are as they aren't, and that creates this dual vision that all of these guys have to deal with as they try and do the right thing for the country. fundamentally don't tell grand dad is a strategy to get through thanksgiving is not a way to govern the country. he has to face reality. >> let me read from chuck grassley, the republican chuck grassley of iowa. senior states man of the senate. next time president trump that you talk to putin, tell him to butt out of our elections, quit the cyber warfare interference in our democracy right now. is there a breaking point, is

there some point we hear more voices like this actively trying to shake the tree at 1600 pennsylvania avenue or did that window just close months ago? >> i think that's a question that's always asked around moments like this with trump. when is the republican party going to rise up and push back against him. i don't know if this is that moment. i don't think so. i mean, look, donald trump's affinity towards vladimir putin actually began before the election -- it happened before the election. he had many times during the campaign where he never stood up to vladimir putin. in fact, he was always -- he defended him in a debate. he constantly had this weird connection with him and russia. and i think that is, in part, the reason why he is where he is today. >> is it up for democrats to take it in 2018 for the mid terms, they need a better message than we can't stand this guy? >> on this russian thing, i don't think it's broken through yet. it's a lot of noise. there is a lot of information coming out of washington.

we've had these 13 indictments. we've got just sort of constant stream of news on russia. i'm not sure the american people fully digest it yet. if i were the democrats i'd make this about national security and 24 this guy swore an oath to protect the united states and he's not doing it when it comes to russia. >> michael, doug, fill, stay with us. when we come back the next big shoe to drop in the mueller investigation.

we're back now just days after robert mueller indicted 13 russian nationals and three russian companies for conspiring to interfere in the u.s. election. the l.a. times is reporting that former trump deputy campaign manager, rick gates, will plead guilty to fraud related charges within days and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against paul manafort, the lawyer, lobbyist, who once chaired the campaign.

gates is manafort's long-time business partner. he worked on the trump campaign from june of 2016 through the election, just shy of inauguration day. he originally pleaded not guilty to his october 27th indictment by mueller on multiple counts, including money laundering and conspiracy against the u.s. this after reporting by cnn that gates had a, quote, queen for a day interview where he can admit anything to the government without consequence as long as he does not lie. let's bring in paul butler, former federal prosecutor, msnbc legal analyst for our sakes, as well as georgetown law professor. in a lot of this, we don't know exactly the circumstances. nbc news has not matched this reporting that he is going to plead guilty here. but talk about why this would be so significant. george papadopoulos, michael flynn, and conceivably rick gates who was there all the way through january with team trump. >> yeah, peter. so, we do know that robert

mueller is an extremely aggressive prosecutor who is going after trump associates, coercing them almost to plead guilty and snitch against somebody who is higher up in the chain. so, aside from the 13 russians who were indicted or on friday who will never see the inside of a u.s. courtroom because the united states doesn't have an extradition treaty with russia. four out of five people who mueller has charged have pled guilty. so, papadopoulos, michael flynn, panedo a guy charged on friday in connection with the russians. now we have rick gates next. so, think gates to manafort to trump. i think that's what mueller is thinking. so, he's trying as hard as he can. the interesting thing is the charges against manafort are from a prosecutor perspective, really easy to prove.

they're paper crimes. money laundering, failure to report. the question is why is it that mueller so badly wants manafort's cooperation? it appears that he thinks that manafort has the goods on somebody and mueller wants the world to know what manafort knows. >> hey, paul, talk to us about this queen for a day interview process. why something like that is the new phrase to a lot of us paying attention to this. why would that be so significant, why would that matter and why is it a hall pass for rick gates to start spewing? >> so, it's a procedure in which a prosecutor has a little sit-down chat with someone who is under investigation. the person comes in -- it's not a formal grant of immunity, but what the person is told is that anything you tell us today, we will not use in a case against you. we want to know what you know because if what you have helps us get someone we want even more than we want you, then we might give you a break. and apparently that test was

passed because richard gates is now looking at 18 months if he offers substantial cooperation. prosecutors are pretty hard core about how they define that, and so mr. gates will have to give up the goods against someone to provide the prosecutor information it doesn't already have, help it make a case. >> paul, stay with us for a moment if you can. phil, let me ask you, behind the scenes at the white house i've had these conversations as well. the bottom line is this russia thing is paralyzing behind closed doors. there are meetings, at least in recent weeks and months, that would go on where folks would just walk out of the meeting because they didn't even want to have tent consolidates in that room. they wanted nothing to do with that conversation which has an impact on their ability to do other things. >> it is such a burden in the white house, especially when you consider so many senior aides close to the president are witnesses in this investigation. so, they have their own lawyers. they are having to take time-out of the workday to prepare for their interviews with robert mueller then they're having to go do the interviews. they take eight, nine, ten

hours. >> jobs are already empty. >> that's right. it's not just about collusion. it's also obstruction of justice where they have key information about where the president made decision s to fire james comey as the fbi director. >> tomorrow, a reminder, we're going to hear from sarah sanders for the first time in a week. i was waiting last week for a briefing. she said we're solely focused on the shooting. you remind us, domestic abuse allegations, cabinet secretaries and luxury travel, an extra marital affair. not to mention russia intensifying investigation. a white house person told you the florida shooting, how did they cast that? >> to be sure they're sensitive about the tragedy in florida. there was a feeling inside the white house friday and over the weekend the shooting anlted to a reprieve for them. they had been under the bright lights of the media spotlight for the numerous scandals growing in the days leading up to the shooting.

all of a sudden the media attention turned to florida. people stopped asking questions. it gave the white house an excuse not to hold any press briefings so they got a few days to sort of collect their thoughts, figure out what they're going to do, reset, if you will, but i don't think these scandals are gone. i think tuesday they're going to be faced with a lot of questions about all of this. >> there is so much to focus on right now. tomorrow as we prepare for that briefing, we have questions across the gamut right now. paul butler joining us long distance, thank you. philip rucker in person. thank you, my friend. we'll ask you to stay with us. when we come back a rising political force starting in parkland, florida, now perhaps spreading across the country. how students are starting to change this conversation on gun restrictions.

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they say guns are like knives and are dangerous as cars. we call b.s. >> there was perhaps the most poignant moment in a weekend full of them. her name is emma gonzalez. she's a senior at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida, and she is part of a rising movement in this country gaining some real momentum over the last several days. just a few hours ago, dozens of teenagers, i witnessed this in person as i was coming over here from the white house, they participate in a three he-minute lie in as they're calling it, right in front of the president's house. the people's house frankly. timed out to symbol eyes how long it took confessed gunman nikolas cruz to kill 17 people last week. the question now, has president trump met his match? at least when it comes to gun control. here's what he tweeted about the shooting over the weekend. he wrote the following. he said, very sad that the fbi missed all of the many signals sent out by the florida school shooter. this is not acceptable. they are spending too much time trying to prove russian

collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion, he writes. get back to the basics and make us all proud. now, listen to the responses from some of the students from parkland, from a young woman who hid in the closet for two hours. you know what isn't acceptable? blaming everyone but the shooter and the lack of gun control in our country. you even blamed the students. we did report him. we tried. but how were we supposed to know what would happen? your lack of sympathy, the student writes, proves hour pitiful of a person you are. and this one. my friends were brutally murdered and you have the nerve to make this about russia. i cannot believe this. finally, 17 of my classmates are gone. that's 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. but you're right, it always has to be about you. how silly of me to forget #never again. and joining us on set is susan page washington bureau chief for

usa today. susan, let me ask you about this now. after newtown, after the deaths of so many young children in classrooms, the sense was, now something is going to happen. if change doesn't happen here, it never will. it didn't happen. so, why is this moment possibly different? >> you know, it's interesting and it's a reminder that sometimes people's voices are more powerful than the officials who have fancy offices here in town. i mean, after the shooting, this terrible shooting, the conventional wisdom here was that nothing would happen as a result. and now i think that calculus is changing because it is very hard to deny the voices of these kids. and it's not republican or democratic. they're saying, do something about school violence, which is a problem that just seems to keep getting worse. >> betsy, if i can ask you about this, i was struck by what our friend in the washington post, philip bump wrote, about this unique generation. it's one thing, it's 2018. columbine, i remember that experience as a reporter. well, was 1999. that means none of these

students, perhaps none of these students at this school in parkland, florida, were even alive then. so literally what i grew up with, earthquake drills in california, with fire drills like we all did as students, these students for the entirety of their lives have grown up with mass shooting drills. this isn't a new normal for them. it's the only normal they've known. and now as they approach a voting age, it feels like this is a potentially powerful block building. >> and we know that when people have concerns about their physical well-being, whether that's their ability to earn money, to take care of their housing, support their families, or just stay physically safe, for instance, in cases where gun violence is a serious issue, that those can be issues that are the most potent when it comes to bringing people to the polls on election days. at the same time, of course, the organization of gun rights activists honed by the nra which spent a historically significant amount of money to get -- help

president trump get elected, can't understate that, right. it has yet to be seen if people who are in the nra camp are thinking twice about how they feel about voting. we do know for a fact it's been borne out for years these voters are extraordinarily mobilized and they show up at the polls. however, when you see this generational divide where more and more people sort of in this younger generation feel that government policies are actually putting them in physical danger, not just hypothetically but physically, that's something that has the potential to really change the way that this group of people vote. >> doug, one of the real risks for progressives, liberal democrats in this country is defeatism. cynicism, the sense, hey, we tried this. how many more people we have to die? we keep running into a wall here. how do you overcome that? how do democrats and others overcome that fear of cynicism or defeatism? >> well, look, when there is a debate about marriage equality in this country, that took a long time. but when it actually happened it was sort of like an avalanche. and now, you know, it's the law

of the country now. i think with gun control, it's going to start -- the difference here is the kids in sandy hook were so young that they weren't really able to voice their, you know, provide a voice. >> they were too young. >> these kids are 17, 18 years old. they can -- they have a platform now through social media. they can get their voices out. they can organize. they are organizing. i wish them all the -- all the luck and best and all the success that they can have here because they may be the only people who can take on the nra. >> let me show you this statement from sarah sanders. we first had this on nbc over the weekend. sarah sanders put a statement about what their effort is right now in this white house, to kind of -- to begin this conversation. the president spoke to senator cornyn on friday about the bipartisan bill he and senator murphy introduced to improve federal compliance with criminal background check legislation. while discussions on on going and revisions is being you made,

the president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system. to you, michael, it seems like the position for some right now, a lot of republicans, hey, we have to fix the system that currently exists before we can talk about do anything else. but for the president to say he supports fixing the system that currently exists, it would have done nothing in this situation here. i'm struck by this. the president says he supports the cornyn bill but the latest proposed federal budget would cut funding by about 15% for the two federal programs that previpr provide money to the states to report data for background checks. >> i think the most important thing for both sides is to do something. it's been almost 20 years since the columbine massacre. the contours of this debate haven't shifted much since the '90s. if a situation cannot endure, it will not continue. small changes, things that can be agreed to now, things that can be done now, are the best thing for -- >> but i guess we have to have some progress. we have five or 10 million

ar-15s in circulation in this country now. we will not get all of them out of circulation any time soon to make some progress. >> agreed. they're not saying yank people's ar-15s and pull them out of their homes. they're saying we should have it so anybody trying to buy a gun right now has to go through a background check system. i understand there are different things that affect people in rural states. will republicans, are they willing to engage in that or is this calculus like this will dissolve over time as they all do? >> i think there are definitely common sense step-by-step reforms that can take place. if you look at what young people think on this issue, millennials have by these standards of the debate we've had our whole lives completely contradictory contradictions. they believe in conceal carry. higher than the general population. >> they added that to the cornyn bill. >> they also believe in a national registry of guns. higher than any other part of the population. so, there is a different debate coming up with these young people than the one we're used to for the past 30 years. >> you're saying republicans are

willing to consider these issues. the fact is republicans were not willing to consider them in the past. they influence of the national rifle association is so considerable. i'm skeptical this is going to change. >> to be clear, then we're going to move on. to be clear on the topic of this, the cornyn bill largely addresses what happened in sutherland springs. it does nothing to address what happens here. where information was missed because the federal database was updated. you guys stay with us if you can. up next, how is this for a transition? a porn star, a play mate and a fixer out to make the most salacious story disappear. we'll be right back. so, that goal you've been saving for, you can do it. we can do this. at fidelity, our online planning tools

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we're back now. "the new york times" out with a profile on the fixer extrao extraordinary. this man, michael cohen, detailing how far he's gone to cover for the president. quote, to protect his boss at critical junctures in his improper political rise, he relied on intimidation tactics, hush money, and the leading tabloid news business, american media inc. who include close trump allies. he headed off trouble involving mr. trump's history with women. he accrued loyalty points, the ultimate currency with mr. trump. american media, by the way, that's the parent company to the national enquirer. betsy, let me ask you about this right now. sort of a stunning understanding

we're getting about the way the trump org and its allies have worked for so long. these seem like allegations that under any other circumstance would have overwhelmed the media landscape, and yet here, they have not only been buried. they have almost disappeared from the conversation. >> right. it shows just how acute trump's understanding is of the power of tabloid media. over the course of his time in the public eye, he has cultivated close relationships with people in high levels of the new york tabloid scene. he's long been an avid reader of the new york post. he gets that the type of people who are interested in him and his politics and in his pop cultural persona also read tabloids. i think that's a big part of the reason we see his longtime attorney having such a fluid, close, easy back and fort with some of these tabloid companies. particularly american media. the head of the national enquirer is close friends with trump. they have been friends for quite some time.

the national enquirer, of course, pushed the story that ted cruz's dad was a conspirator in the jfk assassination and pushed the story that ted cruz had a host of parahours he had been cheating on his wife with. that was useful to trump during the election. it's no surprise they have been useful to him for quite some time. >> what surprising is michael cohen said he facilitated $130,000 to help sort of pay off stormy daniels in the situation related to her there. facilitated doesn't tell us who actually paid the money. he could have facilitated it by putting a stamp on a check coming from the president to her. we don't know. how vulnerable is the president in this situation and does it have the potential to percolate in some way, or does the president in some way, even in this me too moment, immune? >> there are two issues. one is does it cause political damage. it doesn't seem to cause much political damage. once you're president or running

for president, there are legal questions that don't arise when you're just a real estate magnate trying to keep embarrassment out of the press. this is a question of campaign finance laws. was this an illegal contribution from michael cohen. he did not say donald trump personally didn't provide the payoff. there are interesting questions. if you're looking for something that's lethal politically for donald trump, incredibly, this does not seem to be that. >> fundamentally is one of the people pressing the white house on a daily basis in the briefing room, it feels like there's so many, i dare say, bigger things, from russia to all sorts of other allegations about domestic abuse inside the white house that these are questions that get buried bonit so many other elements of the news siegal. is essential to the health of our communities. which is why we're helping to replenish the mighty rio grande as well as over 30 watersheds across the country. we're also leading water projects in more than 100 communities.

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my thanks to nicolle wallace for letting me hold the seat while she enjoy said this presidents' day. that will do it for this hour. i'm peter alexander in for nicolle. "mtp daily" starts right now with katy tur in for chuck todd. i hope you had a very reflective presidents' day. >> i have been reflecting about a lot of things including truth and lies and saying things that don't match up to facts. peter, thank you very much. good job today. if it is monday, it is not predtrump's fault. >> tonight, president trump signals support on background check changes. as school shooting survivors demand action. >> the fact that nikolas cruz purchased legally an