dealing with. this was again a guy who hustled real estate. we keep talking about him like he was this credible business man. he was not -- he is what he was. >> wise words from the rev. we have to end on that. thanks to you. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace, "mtp daily" starts right now. >> more breaking news. we love it. good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington and welcome to "mtp daily." we have a lot to get to tonight on the the president and guns. but we begin with some of the breaking news. the trump former campaign chief paul manafort if he wasn't in serious trouble before, he is now. today the top deputy rick gates pled guilty to conspiracy and lying and now cooperating with robert mueller. and moments ago mueller filed more charges against manafort. they alleged that he secretly

retained a group of senior politicians to take positions favorable to ukraine which included lobbying in the united states. and the charges allege that manafort used at least four off shore accounts to wire more than 2 million you'-- euros to pay t. and today he said he would continue to maintain the innocence. and we have michelle sindor and the white house correspondent howard fineman. and alfonso aguilar is the president of the latino partnership for conservative principles an the chief of the u.s. office of citizenship. welcome all. paul manafort being a big part of the special counsel probe is not news. but, boy, what mueller is finding on him is huge. the question is how much of this touches the president? >> that's the number one question to be asked and hasn't been answered.

the white house is -- every time you ask them, they are getting further away from the memory of who paul manafort is. and this is to the idea of who president trump chose to surround himself with. even if he doesn't know details, he chose someone close to him with kplem financial deal gz -- complex financial deals and shady dealing with foreign actors. >> i think the one thing that seems -- it is not going to be hard to connect these dots, why did the republican party platform change on ukraine. and who was in charge of that on behalf of the trump campaign? paul manafort. it seems obvious, alfonso, that it was paul manafort that got this bizarre change. >> absolutely. but look, at least from the court filings so far, this doesn't touch the president at all. this is quickly becoming from my perspective not a collusion investigation, or a paul

manafort investigation. but it is piling up. but with this evidence of collusion, so far it hasn't happened. >> and with his relationship with the oligarchs was tied to this or not. we don't know. >> i think what mueller is also doing here is trying to show that paul manafort was such a hot, steaming mess of trolls, bots, rigged elections, bot politicians -- bought politicians and monies going back years up to the moment he joined the campaign. given donald trump's own associations and knowledge with oleic arcs a-- oligarchs, how could the candidate not have some inkling at the very least of what paul manafort represented and what he was up to. that is where mueller's headed now. not only to show that manafort was a -- you mix my metaphor, a

glaring red light he had to have seen. who put manafort in front of trump. they had a relationship but not a close relationship. his relationship what with roger stone. and we know tom bearic wrote a letter of recommendation to say, why don't you think about manafort. but you can't help mueller trying to figure out, did the russians push manafort to do this. >> because there is this idea that president trump -- if there isn't collusion that is glaring and actually known, there is this idea he was just played by russia and they understood his vulnerabilities. they understand that he was someone who couldn't get a. or even b. candidates or staff members to join his campaign because at least -- at the height of the campaign he was still seen as a joke. most republicans that i talked to that were qualified for campaign jobs did not want to work for him because they didn't think he would win. and so when paul manafort comes

along, he is someone of people around him recommended and then he took him. so this idea that it goes even more to who is working in the white house right now. obviously there aren't people in the white house being indicted. but if you are choosing these people and we're seeing people have the -- kelly has to revamp clearance schedules, it tells you that the president -- there might be other problematic people in the sphere. >> and the more exotic scenario is that in a way somebody understand that the president himself might not be able to resist bringing in someone like manafort. if someone was compromised an the russians knew about it, this is where we're getting to. for the sake of the white house, they need to understand that -- that will are so many open questions and these scenarios are being played over washington. >> and even with the contacts with the russians, it is note easy to prove that the president knew what was happening.

>> the president -- it is important to note that he did firemana for t fire -- fire paul manafort in august. >> and he was there a couple of months. >> not a significant time. >> after manafort's work in ukraine became -- >> an issue. >> but rick gates remained involved in the campaign. >> and in the transition. >> so one of the things that they are looking at manafort and gates for is exactly what they chain was after manafort left the campaign through the transition. >> and this is the part that hasn't been a lot of reporting on, but gates flipping, bad news for mania fort no doubt. but it gets to what howard just pointed out. gates was a part of the transition. and what happened during that transition. that is a shaky part. this is part of jared kushner's problem. one of the reasons he can't finish -- it is unclear --

conversations he had during the transition, who was he representing, the government or his businesses. >> i think that this president as he tried to get away from the idea of russia trying to get -- this idea of bad actors that are around him, it really comes down to the fact that robert mueller is building a case step by step. unlike people who are willing to say this doesn't touch the president at all and we don't know that, but this is a case building and it could be building to get to donald trump. >> i want to highlight a quick graphic. the mueller probe, 19 indictments or guilty pleas so far. and they are not -- and they are sort of systematic. and they've been systematic. >> but manafort is saying, wait a minute, some of those are indictments that you didn't have authority to seek information on. >> that is what he's claiming. >> what he's claiming. but in other words, this is a test of wills, a contest between

mueller and manafort. >> well gates -- >> gates through in the towel and that is what manafort was mad and that is why he put out that statement because they needed a unified front to deny the legitimacy of the probe into nonpolitical stuff. >> i don't want to close with this. alfonso, mueller is doing a lot to drain the swamp in one particular area. manafort was the king of foreign money. of earning foreign money. the foreign lobbying. it is always been -- it is amazing, cash is king in this world. lobbyists and political consultants who look at the $100,000 a month pay day to work with some questionable government around the world, mueller's aggressiveness against manafort and gates might stop this. >> i think so. president trump is right that there is a swamp in washington. he had somebody from the swamp.

which is ironic. but indeed they are still individuals today in washington, d.c. that do have this type of relationship with foreign governments and have all sorts of fishy transactions with foreign governments and hopefully this will bring attention to this and we'll see if there is a will in congress to start changing some of the laws. >> some of the laws need to be changed but i think some people are going to look around and go, that could be me. i better be careful. >> and some of the people -- there are people looking at this and say what are the ways i need to change what i'm doing. the second thing that will happen is that -- i think people are going to wonder whether or not they should go into politics, if they have all of the dealings. the question that i keep asking myself, if you knew you were doing this stuff, what in the world were you doing getting in a national campaign. just stop and make your money and continue to be in the shadows. and it is huberous. >> and the powers of self-dilution. >> michael flynn got caught quoted of saying russia is

speaking, that is a problem. >> they didn't think they were going to win and that is why they did it. >> and i think that paul manafort wanted legitimate power -- he wanted -- >> one last shot at the brass ring. >> i interviewed him about this at one point during the campaign and he said, i always wanted to be chief of staff. and he wanted one more shot. >> and he had diluted himself into thinking he could get there this way. >> now politico consultants dream of electing their president and i get one more grasp at it. and that is something. you are sticking around. the gates plea and the new mania fort charges and there is quite the homeland-style plot twist that we have to tell you about. it involves the ollic arc that has been indicted by the special counsel. he has mercenaries fighting americans. it is unbelievable. we'll talk about that later in the show. and plus i'll talk to two governors about their state's unique challenges with gun reform. when i found out i had age-related macular degeneration, amd,

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welcome back. today in meet the midterms the campaign arm for house democrats did something unique. they are attacking a candidate in texas. now what is surprising about that? well the candidate that democrats are slamming is a democrat. the dccc is picking sides in a high stakes texas primary by publicizing negative opposition research about a candidate named laura moser. she's a progressive running for the texas seventh house district, the houston area district. the democrats really believe they could win. the information includes her saying in 2014 that she would rather have her teeth pulled out without anesthesia than live in paris, texas. in a statement they said democratic voters need to hear that laura moser is not going to change washington. why does this matter? well they want the seventh district in their corner. it is one of 23 republican held seats that hillary clinton won in 2016.

the democratic party is worried that moser is too liberal or too out of touchdown of texas -- ou. but they put out the information instead of leaking it to another candidate or media outlet or letting the candidates decide whether this is an issue amongst themselves. now it is a national story and could end up backfiring on them and further straining the relationship between the establishments and the progressive wing of the party. we'll see what happens here. but this was a head scratching move at a precarious time. the texas primary first week in march. we'll be back with more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds.

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>> so this crazy man who walked in won't even know who it is that has it. that is good. it is not bad. that is good. and a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened. >> they'll take away your second amendment which we will never allow to happen. they'll take away your second amendment. >> that doesn't sound like someone who wants to seriously address this issue. it sounds like what we heard yesterday from the nra. but then just hours later, came other signals from the president suggesting he's very serious about actually advancing this discussion. >> well we're going to do a lot. but we are going to be very strong on background checks. we want to be powerful and strong on background checks and especially as it pertains to the mentally ill. we'll have strong language with the background checks and that will take place quickly. >> and the president gave students like this one a national platform.

>> how are we not stopping this after columbine, after sandy hook. i'm sitting with a mother that lost her son. it is still happening. and i don't understand why i could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an ar. >> and it is been students like that who have forced action in florida in the wake of last week's massacre. rick scott today unveiled a proposal that includes sweeping reforms to florida gun laws and they seem directly influenced by last week's shooting. scott's plan includes a ban on firearms under the age of 21 and that would have meant the gunman nikolas cruz wouldn't have been able to legally buy his ar-15 and wants the courts to issue retraining orders to prevent someone suspected of mental illness from buying guns which means officials or family members could have prevented him from legally buying a gun and more police officers protecting schools at a rate of

approximately one per 1,000 students. which means there might have been as many as three cops protecting cruz's school. and not just the one who failed to act. and here is what governor scott said today when asked about the president's plan to arm teachers? >> i disagree with -- with arming the teachers. my focus is on bringing in law enforcement. >> let law enforcement do the -- keeping us safe and teachers focus on teaching. >> bill nelson is opposing the plan because it doesn't ban all assault rifles. democrats will have to decide, do they want the issue or do they want to make some incremental progress and quite frankly a lot of elected leaders will have to make that decision, left and right. whether the president or a senate or a congressman or a governor. a few moments ago i spoke with two governors, john kasich of ohio and bill walker of alaska and i asked their take on

governor scott's proposal. >> i haven't studied it in depth. when it comes to the restraining order, i think it needs to go farther than that. if you have somebody in your home, the family member knows is not stable, could hurt themselves, hurt family members or hurt somebody outside of the home, i believe there needs to be a restraining order and those guns should be taken from them. i think that is where we need to go. but that is a step forward. of course we should ban the bump stocks. they should have been done a long time ago. this is to me -- now can we get it done in florida? could we get it done in ohio? yet to be seen. but this is all moving in a direction where we want to have respect for the second amendment but yet have reasonable -- reasonable restrictions. for example, chuck, one of the things that i'm always concerned about is these high-capacity magazine. the problem with assault weapons is you have one that is an ar-15 and another one that is a deer

hunting rifle. and is the system going to move far enough to accommodate that, i don't know. but i think the nic system so everyone has to be reporting and i think that will enhance and do i think this will -- >> you would put that in the system. >> if somebody sees something, they report something and action can be taken. so if you see somebody unstable in your home, or for example if you are outside of the home and you see somebody unstable, you have to have a way in which to contact law enforcement. we're working on that. but i don't -- the key is we have these issues, in my state and in florida any of the states, can we pass something. now we're getting closer to that. but we have to be able to get some change going in a real way. >> governor walker, you represent a rural state, guns are essentially seen differently in a rural state than they are in an urban state.

is there much alaska needs to do when it comes to school safety and what do you think? >> there is. and you are right, alaska is unique. we use guns for hunting and subsistence and a way of life and out in the -- >> it is called the last frontier for a reason. >> so our focus is going to be -- it is going to be on keeping our children safe. and that is going to be important. i think there is some things that we can do -- one thing i like about the nga is that -- listening to the other governor about what they are doing and putting together effort with the public education and i would like to make sure there is a hotline. >> what about raising the age. >> that is a possibility. we have a lot of young people in alaska that hunt at a very young age. so on subsistence and they are the hunter for the community and they'll bring in it food. so that is going to be -- in every state is very unique and i think -- i watch today governor scott and i really empathize

and -- with him. every state needs to do what is best for their state. >> governor kasich, you've moved on this record and your record would say you are a pro-gun guy and nra would look at your record but you moved on this. what has moved you. >> i voted for the assault weapons ban in 1994. when i ran for governor in 2010, i didn't have support from the nra. >> but you signed a bunch of -- >> i believe in the second amendment and if i think it will endanger the public -- there is talk in my state about standing your ground and i said i won't sign it. don't give it to me. no matter wherer with you in the past, governor scott or -- look at what happened in this country. i formed this group to talk about what we could do a couple of months ago. i don't remember exactly when because i said the public is demanding something and you have to let air out of the pressure

cooker. so it is a matter of now for anybody is to take a look at the tragedy involving these children and las vegas and say something has to be done. what is important, chuck, is that those that love the second amendment, this is not an attempt to go and come in your house and take your guns or -- it is not what this is about. this is about reasonable restrictions to have gun safety, our community safer. >> most people know that nobody is interested in taking away guns but governor walker -- the nra does use it as a tactic, maybe it is to fund raise or rile people up, but it has warped the debate. could they be better actors here, the nra? and how they proceed with this debate? >> well, again, what we do in alaska is so different. the arguments that maybe are raised pro and con in other states are somewhat lost on the alaska lifestyle. so it is a matter of making sure that we're not -- it is not

accessible to come into our schools and our children don't become victims. we had a situation in the past in alaska that was horrific and we don't want another. >> and i'll ask about the idea about arming teachers. where are you on this? >> i think there is -- >> in ohio i read about there are a lost school districts, they don't tell the parents, i think a lot of parents are finding out today, going oh, really. and. >> what i would say is under a program where teachers would volunteer, you don't have to pay them a bonus. these are people that love our kids and put their bodies in front of the bullets to save our kids. >> do you think the financial thing is a warped thing to do. >> no, you don't have to do that because there are teachers who will say i want to sign up and get extensive training and i want to know what to do and if that is the case i'm for that. >> what do you say to the parents that are going to be like, whoa whoa whoa. >> they ought to know there are teachers in the school who have been trained and they have guns. in that case, if parents knew

exactly what was going on, and they are there for protecting their kids. >> the question i have is why go there when we haven't tried the middle step which is for instance what governor scott is proposing, which is one police officer per a thousand students at a school which seems fairly reasonable. >> for me it is access. it is amazing for how far we've moved because when i grew up in -- we would take our guns to school because we shoot target during the school breaks and sit there in class and look out -- >> this is a different life now. >> during the break you grab your shotgun and go out and get some -- >> different conversation on guns if we all grew up that way. >> but so we have moved a long way. but my concern is our schools are designed to have free access. come to the school and walk into various doors and we need to change that. so coming into the school itself is more challenging after school starts. so there are things that we could do on that that are critical. >> we spent money hardening schools an getting into a

position of where they -- they know what to do if there is an incident and if you say there are middle steps, i've been at times very critical of the administration. the president if he falls through deserves a lot of praise because he is providing leadership. and i think he's making it easier for the states politically to get something done. so in this one, he deserves credit. >> governor walker, what have you told him about the upside of being a political independent. >> well you can play on all teams. put a cabinet together that is made up of republicans and democrats and independents and the cabinet looks like alaskans which it is. so i -- it is an advantage here in washington, no question about that. i think there is -- it is an advantage governing that way. >> there is a lot of rumors today in my favorite morning news letters talking about john kasich running for president as an independent. have you asked him for advice on how to do it? >> i didn't read the article, could you send it to me so i could see who wrote it.

the party is my vehicle and not my master. i don't know what i'm doing, chuck. and we have to see what happens. but here is the thing i believe, with millennials and the jen xers they've had with both parties. i believe there will be a time in the future where we'll have a multi-party makeup in this country because neither party is responding. and these young people -- it is a new era of activism and citizenship in this country and if the parties can't respond -- >> they refer to you as a small arm republican and that is where you lean but you may be a political independent for office if you run again. >> i'm in a tug-of-war. i'm for trade and immigration and concerned about debt. that is where my party lives. that is our dna. and somehow we've moved off of that and when you don't pay attention to your dna, you could get sick. >> simply put. i don't believe any one party has a monopoly on good ideas and when you can't reach over to the other group and put something

together, you miss out -- use any analogy, sports or business analogy, if the board or team divided up, it would never work. >> so i think i know your alaska state director is. >> i learned more about alaska hanging out with this guy in the last day than i've learned in all of my lifetime. >> governors, good to see you. thank you for coming. you could see more of my interview with the governors including their new proposal today aimed at fixing the nation's health care system, making obamacare work on our website at "meet the press".com and this sunday we'll dig deeper into where the gun debate is heading. i'll talk exclusively with senator pat toomey and amy klobuchar because it is sunday and it is "mtp daily." we'll be back with more "mtp daily" and the crazy oligarch with mercenaries in syria. that is ahead. h blood sugar and cardiovascular risk?

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still ahead on "mtp daily," connecting the dots between a russian oligarch and a mercenary attack on u.s. troops in syria and the mueller investigation. but first josh lipton with the market wrap. >> after a volatile week, stocks rally with a major average posting quality gains early for closing off the highs in the previous three sessions. dow jumped up 347 points. the s&p gained 45 points marking the best day in two weeks. nasdaq climbed 127 points. walmart shares plunge 13% in the two trading sessions after

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welcome back. let's get to what has got to be one of the most sensational plot twists yet in the russia story. the latest development sounds like it is straight out of a tv show like homeland. get this. yevgeny prigozhin who was indicted for bankrolling the russian troll farm that interfered in the 2016 election, he has more than just an army of bots. according to the post, he had a private mercenary force in syria and orchestrated an attack on the united states troops in syria using that very private

mercenary force earlier this month. intercepted communications reportedly say prigozhin coordinated with assad and told syrian officials that he secured permission from a russian minister to move forward with a fast and strong initiative. that means a russian man indicted in the mueller probe coordinated an attack on the u.s. and the troops in syria in communication with the assad government and with the blessing of the kremlin. does president trump still think shrewd mere putin is his friend? joining me now is national security analyst jeremy bash. jeremy, when i read this story, i saw -- i said wait a minute, i think that is the same dude and you keep reading down. first of all, this issue of russian mercenaries, how operative are they around the world? >> well first i see your homeland and i raise 1964 james bond from russia with love.

>> fair enough. >> so russia uses mercenaries and private military because they engage in hybrid warfare. they don't want to take the united states on a force on force battle like during the cold war. they want to use little green men and private military and cyber attacks. they want to use agents of influence. a lot of things that robert mueller laid out in the indictment of 13 individuals and several organizations are part and parcel of the effort, the covert action russian effort and in russia they call it act vi-- active measures. >> the way the post reported this is the motivation is assad wants the u.s. out of syria. and this -- and putin has said, the united states is there illegally, they are there legally. and he's made that clear before. so this was an attempt to send a message to the united states, it sounds like our troops sent a message to the russians. >> that is right. make no mistake, the kremlin authorized an attack of russian

forces against a u.s. military position. and but for the scale and professionalism of special operations forces who rappelled the attack and killed a large number of the russian troops, president trump would be standing on the tarmac at dover welcoming home flagged draped fallen heroes. it is that serious. >> so is there any way that this is connected to mueller's indictment? does prigozhin know he is under fire or is that just too off the rails. >> the big picture is that in no place around the world is russia our friend. and no place, certainly not in syria or ukraine or certainly not in europe has putin been beneficial to u.s. interest and for the president to consistently be obsequious is a huge blind spot that the president of the united states has. >> this was a remarkable scoop by the post. what is more remash -- remarkabs

how they got the scoop. they did great reporting and gave them enough confidence so they feel comfortable reporting it. were you surprised at how much detail the post had? >> i was. again if all of this reporting is true, it is an extraordinary revelation. it also shows that senior officials around the president don't really foe how to handle their boss. if they tell him, hey, mr. president, putin attacked our forces, they are not sure if they will have a job on monday. >> that is the part of this -- this happened, this happened approximately -- it looks like about three or four weeks -- >> february 7th. >> and we're sitting here and having to learn about it through leaks and sources of -- russia attacked america. is that -- is that a hyperbole or not. >> it is not. they mass forced and crossed the river and our forces were able to see them and fought back. but then this is about as serious as it get-- gets.

it shows the president's deference to russia makes no sense. and this is where it is connected to the mueller probe and we have a foreign policy in russia that makes no sense. why is president trump so obsessed with giving russia the benefit of the doubt. >> what is happening in syria right now. it seems as if at times there are five different countries and now everybody had an interest in getting rid of isis. that was the russians an the united states and the turks, assad, the iranians and yet now with isis sort of in retreat, nobody wants to leave, nobody wants to hand it to assad and everybody is starting to -- i thought by accident now but pointing guns at each other. >> we have done one very good thing is we intensified the anti-isis campaign and put more fire power on raqqah and have denied -- >> made progress. >> and denied them the physical caliphate but we made a huge

mistake pulling back our support from moderate syrian forces who could put pressure on assad and we left it to the russian and iranian access and you see squirmish between israel and iran and threatened our interest in the region. >> and we are still having issues with the turks over the kurds. >> and we've been supporting them but haven't been able to align our strategy with our nato all alley -- ally with turkey. >> what is the response to the russians. >> it is very complicated but get them to agree to a cease-fire. the u.n. security council is considering a cease-fire resolution. russia has been opposing it. we now here some reports that the resolution may come up this weekend and russia has to get on board as you've seen from the reports, 500 innocent civilians and including a hundred children have been killed in the latest bombardment. >> and russia could agree to a cease-fire and let the messen

aries do their dirty work. >> they can. >> jeremy bash. what a crazy story but very important. thank you. up next, i'm obsessed with how a math problem might be a big problem for the nra. excuse me, are you aware of what's happening right now? we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks... actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster. you can do that? we can do that. then do that. can we do that? we can do that. this new day looks nothing like yesterday. trails are covered. paths aren't what they used to be. roads nowhere to be found. ( ♪ )

and it's exactly what you're looking for. ( ♪ ) welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with a scientific theory you may have never heard of but could be the reason why something is changing

in this country bh wh it comes to guns. it is called the contact hypothesis. boiled down, it is the theory that what is needed for understanding between polarized groups with differing views is contact. but we don't need science to tell us that personal relationships and personal experiences change us. look at the same-sex marriage debate. if you know someone who experienced racism or homophobia or prejudice, chances are you feel differently. if you could put a face or name to a hardship chances are you feel differently when it is that personalized. a washington post analysis found 150,000 students attending 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the columbine high school massacre in 1999. so let's do a quick math. take those 150,000 students with firsthand experience. and give them each ten friends and relatives and now you are up to 1.5 million people who could put a personal face to gun violence in schools. now give those 1.5 million

people another ten friends and relatives. you see where we're going. no up to 15 million people which is two degrees of separation from gun violence in schools. and that number sky rockets when you start adding in teachers, administrators and other people who have been touched by other forms of gun violence. we're reaching the point where soon everyone will be less than six degrees separated from some sort of personal connection with gun violence. arguably we may already be there. and if you are the nra and worried about protecting your political turf, the contact hypothesis may be very concerning to you. we'll be right back. stay with me, mr. parker. when a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. stay with me, mr. parker. the at&t network is helping first responders connect with medical teams in near real time... stay with me, mr. parker. ...saving time when it matters most. stay with me, mrs. parker.

that's the power of and. like you do sometimes, grandpa? and puffed... well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. so i talked to my doctor. she said... symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. you should tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. symbicort could mean a day with better breathing. watch out, piggies! get symbicort free for up to one year. visit saveonsymbicort.com today to learn more.

if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. bundle and save big, but now it's time to find my dream abode. -right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. -keep going. stop. a little bit down. stop. back up again. is this adequate sunlight for a komodo dragon? -yeah. -sure, i want that discount on car insurance just for owning a home, but i'm not compromising. -you're taking a shower? -water pressure's crucial, scott! it's like they say -- location, location, koi pond. -they don't say that. first started running trump-petrump trump-pence and hats, make america great again hats. >> what a love picture. i would love to watch that guy speak. >> i try like hell to hide that

bald spot. >> what was that all about? >> we had a crooked candidate too, by the way. [ chanting ] >> boy, have they committed a lot of atrocities. you don't mind if i go off script a little bit. because it is sort of boring. beautiful, clean coal, military, veterans, law enforcement great american flag. >> strong borders. >> second amendment. >> you are getting the wall. don't worry. [ chanting ] >> thank you, everybody. you've been amazing. >> time for the lid. the panel is back. howard, that was a campaign trump that showed up at cpac. >> it was campaign trump with a little bit of horse belt. >> you felt that -- the bald spot. >> if there was a cpac force belt it would be it. it shows -- what it shows is those are his buds in politics. deeply so he has nothing to fear

in that crowd. nothing whatsoever. >> but alfonso, he did -- he basically did the dog whistles on immigration. i didn't think they were dog whistles. >> whistle. i don't even know if it's a dog whistle. he just whistles. sounds like a lot of republicans missed cpac this year. >> he broke his record, he spoke for about an hour and 15 minutes. the speech on immigration, it was really awful. he recited that poem, the snake. it was really awful. he was talking to his base and he felt really comfortable. >> it's interesting, he still -- this is where he's still a product of like the last century sometimes politically. he still thinks you can somehow say one thing over here, and those people over there aren't going to hear it. or does he think he knows this? >> i think he knows he's gotten away with it. i don't think he just kind of thinks he can get away with what he said in that room and it

won't affect him later, he knows it won't affect him later. >> it does affect him. because he can't get middle ground on things. >> he doesn't want middle ground. >> there's only one interesting aspect of background checks. and i thought he was going to bet boo get booed. but that crowd loves trump. >> but the cpac of old -- >> the cpac of traditional small government conservatives that we used to see when cpac started, when bill buckley was still alive, that's been wiped out. this is a total trump crowd. and the proof of it is exactly what you said. the old conservatives would be going crazy about the possibilities of losing civil rights and privacy. >> when i was at the white house briefing yesterday, i asked specifically, what's this president going to do for republicans who go along with him and then get primaried by --

they said the president would give them political cover. with all this talk about him arming teachers, he said i'm not going to agree with the nra on everything but i'm going to show up at some of these campaigns and i'll push back on the nra. >> let me tell you how the nra has reacted to this one. i don't think they realize how far out of touch they are with suburban america. >> i think they're taking an entrenched position, i think the majority of people believe in background checks, bans on assault weaponless. th they're just not showing empathy. they lash back on -- she's a spokesperson from the nra, she comes from the conservative world. she was a radio host, and she has a hard time connecting with people.

showing that empathy, we saw it at the cnn town hall. i don't think it helps the nra. >> howard, we have seen this happen, the boycott movements and corporate america is basically so afraid of polarized america, that they all just fall in line. i have a few we can show you, these are ones that just in the last few days have dropped their -- nra membership gives you special issues, a la aaa. and that's a problem for the nra. they have been main streamed for years. >> main streamed and yet somehow under the radar at the same time. what they can't stand is the visibility that they're getting. >> yeah. >> because they operate best with the money and the influence behind the scenes in washington. they don't want stuff to get that public. i think when they -- i think something happened, you talked about contact. >> yeah. >> is changing. contact hypothesis, if you can do it through television, those

high school kids did it. they sparked every high school in every community in america. >> i love that, there's a little graphic of all the different snapchats, of hey, we're all do our walkouts. >> that's the other part of the story, that we're getting beyond the millennial's we talk about to the next generation of kids who are totally wired from the beginning on social media, and the power of that is something the nra itself doesn't understand. >> two things are happening, one the nra is feeling the pressure from these kids. the reason why we're not seeing empathy, if they start showing empathy, they're going to have to start explaining, if you actually think this is something that's hurting kids, what are you going to do about it. so they're in this position, also these kids, they revolut n revolutionized the internet in ways i didn't realize, because it's so simple. by being a millennial, i'm

trolling people thinking what should i say, and these people are trolling people and giving heck. >> happy friday, welcome to the club. these kids today, right? >> still ahead, how major league baseball is going to bat for the survivors of the florida school shooting. can make you feel unstoppable. but mania, such as unusual changes in your mood,

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in case you missed it, sweet relief for us baseball fans. today is the first official day of major league baseball spring training games, and every team is wearing the same cap. this one, it's the maroon sd of stoneman douglas high school. this started with the florida marlins, the miami marlins, who train and play less than an hour from parkland, florida. they asked the commissioner if they could wear the special caps in honor of the people killed in the mass shooting, when the rest of the teams heard about it, they wanted to do it too. and the oakland a's brought in minor league prospect jesus lombardo who graduated from stoneman douglas to play in their season opener. and students from stoneman douglas got a chance to meet with their miami marlins pals. i love the start of spring

training and this only makes me love it even more. hello rob manfred, just let us know the minute we can start buying those caps, i know i for one want in on this, and will absolutely tell the world about it. we'll be back on monday with more "mtp daily." "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. you could do hours on russia today but i know you only have one. breaking news tonight, for two trump aides in legal trouble. guilty for the first time, a top trump campaign aide is pleading guilty in the russia probe, this is not an advisor, this is not a volunteer, this is a man entrusted to run donald trump's campaign, you can see him there leaving federal court after pleading guilty for conspiracy and making a false statement.