my state legislature. >> thanks for joining me tonight. that does it for "all in." catch us every week night at 8:00 right here on msnbc. unglued. let's play ""hardball"." good evening. i'm chris matthews in new york. we're witnessing the consequences of governing by chaos. the president is angry, isolated, depressed and he's lashing out in ways that have big repercussions. nbc news reports now that on wednesday evening the president became unglued, that's the word in the words of one official familiar with the president's state of mind. unglued. events had set him off in a way two officials said they had not seen before. hope hicks testimony to lawmakers investigating russia's interference in the 2016

election. conduct by his elm battled attorney general. and the treatment of his son-in-law by his chief of staff. anyway trump the two officials said was angry and gunning for a fight. he chose a trade war. that decision announced without any review by the state, treasury or defense departments and taking most of his own staff by surprise led the stock market to drop hundreds of points. the chaos in the white house might thread a shake up. john kelly and his own family seem lock in a battle right now and according to the associated press one kelly backer says chief of staff remains tenuous because of clashes with kushner over policy, personnel and white house truck purr. the "washington post' reports trump's adult sons were angry and felt that by not protecting kushner kelly had been disloyal to the president himself.

they people said. meanwhile the washington host reports some colleagues privately mocked kushner as a shadow of his former self. for his part donald trump seems to be annoyed with everyone around him. his staff at times managed to talk him off the ledge. no more. tired have his own restraints and his staff he's ticking off every person who serves him. that's "the washington post" report. the "post" adds he hates kelly's rigid rules so he purposely blew off kelly's rules and announced tar rivers in a haphazard way. joining me bloomberg news reporter. national political reporter. white house bureau chief of the "the washington post". and republican strategist. look i want to start with jonathan swan on this. give us the big ramifications,

repercussions, if you will, consequences of this craziness in this white house where everybody seems to be an enemy of the president and he has to show he's still the boss and will do anything to do that? >> well i just want to emphasize for your viewers how chaotic it was. when "the washington post" today broke that story that trump and wilbur ross were going to announce a engage tariff on steel and aluminum, i called officials who should have been involved in this discussion. nobody knew a thing. nobody knew a thing. wilbur ross knew about it. donald trump jr. knew about it. there was this frantic scramble what is trump doing. what is he planning. what is he going to announce. one thing that everybody said, he's not going to sign anything because there's nothing for him to sign. there's no paper work.

the paper work hasn't gone through a legal process. there's no interagency process. this stuff was planned out for weeks and weeks in advance and we're still being litigated among this trade team. this is not a small decision. 25% tariff on steel. we don't know whether there are carve outs. 25% on aluminum. this is something that was opposed on national security grounds that it's being if voekd on national security ground. mattis said it will do us harm because who do we get our aluminum from? actually canada. not china. and steel china is down the list. so we're getting our allies upside and done in the most impulsive way humanly possible. >> i want to go to shannon on this. countries like britain and canada spend all their time thinking about trade. we spend some time. we never had a president doing it as a way of pout. i'll show kelly.

i'll end run him because i'm in a bad mood this week over what happened to hope hicks. she's gone. kushner is in a corner and dethroned and he doesn't like sessions. what's his name, mcmasters is ready to walk. this is a crazy house. then to show that he doesn't like the way things are going he calls a trade policy war, basically a trade war just to show he's still got two guns. your thoughts. >> i mean you mentioned, i know trade policy sounds wonkish. but as you were saying the impact on foreign policy and national security. the role that steel plays in all of that is enormous. so for there not to be a foreign policy consideration or discussion too is also troubling a lot of people. we get back to this broader issue of governing. who is governing right now? we have issues around the budget, we have immigration, gun control. they would like to see

enentitlement reform on the hill and on congress still mass confusion about what this president will sign. what if they scene him will he actually agree to get on board with. can't even get that message from the president of their own party. as far as governing, i mean it's chaotic as you can imagine, and it's kind of hard to see how the ship gets straightened out. >> phil, you cover washington for the "post." i want to ask you about this chaotic situation at the white house. like fun house mirrors that normally distorts you. when trump looks in the mirror he looks normal. the distortion is the reality. this is crazy when you have the first son-in-law basically being miniaturized by the chief of staff. you got the chief favor to the president walking on him in the middle of this storm without

telling him ahead of time. hope hicks walks out the door. at the same time he reforces his attorney general as mr. mcgoo, saying you're an old loser, you're an old guy who doesn't know what he's doing here. this is weird. it gets weirder. there are consequences. i mean he starts a trade war. autos need aluminum and steel to be made. if you want the american auto try to be competitive you have to get them cheaper materials. you don't make the price of materials go up by starting a trade war. you thoughts. you're the pro on this. >> chris, talking to folks who work in the white house but people who have been talking to the president over the last few days he's as isolate and angry as they've seen him during this presidency. he's at war. open war with his own justice department. he's got his son-in-law in a heap of trouble both politically

inside the building but legally. there's an increasing investigation into his finances and other issues. and the russia probe, the mueller probe is creeping closer and closer to the oval office and has the president very much on edge and unnerved and we're seeing the policy follow that with trade action. but he's just losing it according to the people who are interacting with him these last 48, 72 hours. >> susan, let's talk about business dealings. trade. he has a son-in-law who just borrowed $185 million and cut the deal sitting in the white house. there's questions about whether if he doesn't like qatar, he will maybe do a little war on that country to get even. this is scary stuff to a guy using his white house to make money. >> not only that -- >> big money. >> he's been deemed vulnerable for potential enemies of our country to go after because he does need this financial help.

>> just to make sure, kushner has got problems. >> oh, kushner has a lot of problems. >> he bought a building on 6th avenue in new york city where i'm at right now. he couldn't afford it. wasn't a good investment. he's under water. >> multiple properties. >> to fix the problem he uses the white house as a way to cut good debt deals. >> his sister went to china saying we can get you visas if you do certain deals with us. this is something that kushner has been doing all along. it's now just coming to accumulation. >> this is third world stuff. this is what they do in countries we say that's corrupt. >> this is what happens when you elect a president who is over his head. he thinks because i won he's entitled to whatever he wants. >> does know what his son-in-law is up to? how is your day? he calls him donald. i borrowed $150 million sitting in the white house seat you gave

me. a major question hanging over the white house is jared kushner on his way out? according to the "new york times" mr. trump is also frustrated with mr. kushner who he views as a liability because of his legal entanglements. the kushner real estate company and publicity over having his security clearance downgraded. according to two people familiar with his views. in private conversation the president vacillates between sounding regretful mr. kushner is taking arrows and annoyed he's another problem to deal with. jonathan, i can understand how that can be at some point you root for a guy and then realize your rooting for the salvation of your son-in-law when you have other things you ought to be doing. >> i think the "new york times" wrote it correctly. the president is conflicted over this. he does vent about jared privately but likes having ivanka and jared to some extent around. the most interesting thing that happened this week on that front

is the "wall street journal" put out an editorial in the kindest possible way suggesting that ivanka and jared might want to consider and walking out and leaf the white house for the good of the president. murdoch and the president are very close. nothing will get published with a minimum of ruppert's knowledge and people familiar with the process say more than knowledge and probably a bit of back and forth. that's a significant signal. >> well the murdoch mind is about business. does he think it's smarter for the president to get rid of his son-in-law and his daughter? >> that's absolutely what the editorial said. the editorial was these are great people unfairly maligned and the press is going after them but, you know, there comes a point where only they must

know about their vulnerabilities. if there's more to come do it. >> this is not the end of troubles. he'll move out family members. one thing about trump we know this whole thing is a soap opera. it's a soap opera with characters dropping off like "downtown abby." more people leaving and more trouble. starting a trade war yesterday. he just did it yesterday. the president tweeted today how easy it is to win trade wars. he wrote when a country, the usa, is losing many dollars on trade with virtually every country it does with. trade wars are good and easy to win. example. when we were down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don't trade any more. we win big. let's watch him talk. >> i'm not even worried about 60

votes. i believe that 60 votes, 60% meaning should be so easy. >> it's very easy to be presidential. >> so many of these things are so easy to fix. >> we will get our jobs back and we're going to stop companies from leaving. and it's so easy. >> a lot of politicians said you can't get mexico to pay for the wall. i said oh, it's going to be so easy. >> you're going to have such great health care and a tiny fraction of the cost. and it's going to be so easy. >> i work with politicians all my life. they are easy. >> i'm so good at this stuff. i'm so good. it's so easy. >> that's the old one, two, three. remember that song "it's so easy." the thing about muhammed ali when he said i'm going to knock that guy out de. trump doesn't follow through with these easeiness claims. >> well to his credit he did

admit health care was way more complicated than anyone realized. so he did admit that one wasn't so easy and of course we didn't get any health care legislation passed. >> but that was mccain's fault. >> there's a lot of within in their sails coming off tax reform. there was bounce in the step of people in the white house coming in to january getting tax reform done and i think maybe that did leave them with this perception that, like immigration would be easy. that they had some momentum. it does seem like that momentum has ground to a halt. you talk to people around them who are leaving. i know there's so much time spend on hope hicks. even if kushner and ivanka stay on, they've lost so much of their inner circle that was there to help shepherd them through washington, to weather these storms. even people on the domestic policy end. so anybody who is going to get things done they are few and far between left at this point.

>> speak of problems. phil, for some reason the chief of staff to the president, the president doesn't really like that much, yon kelly, is now going back and filling over the question of what he knew or didn't know about robert porter. and now he's saying he didn't know there was physical abuse. what do you make of that? >> well i don't know whether to believe it or not. that's his version of events now. it does not match with his version of events at the time a month ago. doesn't match with the testimony that the fbi director gave to congress where he made clear that reports of the abuse of porter's wives and allegations were made clear to the white house. maybe kelly didn't know about the physical abuse. i don't know. you have to ask him under oath. he's trying to get himself out of that hole. he lost a lot of credibility over his handling of the porter crisis and the attempt today with reporters was to clean up that mess. >> we talk about molestation. joe paterno.

say what it was. why didn't the white house lawyer who is supposed to clear all this stuff why didn't he tell the chief of staff because according to kelly he was never told what we're talking about here. >> according to kelly he was never told. i'm not sure he was never told. i'm not sure i actually believe that statement. i don't under how this man could be working in the white house, he's gone through the clearances. obviously the fbi saw this as a big flag. if he did not tell kelly he should be fired. that's just malpractice. it's crazy. i don't think it's true the president didn't know what was happening. >> it reminds me of the whole paterno thing. where somebody told somebody. just say it. be grown-ups. be responsible and accept accountability. it's a cruel world but be honest.

thank you all. coming up the trump family is in trouble with nbc news now reporting jared kushner is being investigated for using his position in the white house for personal financial advantage. it's the royal family, if you will, using the presidency to make personal cash. don't you think? that's bad and that's ahead. plus why is the first thing on trump's brain this morning starting a twitter fight with actor and comedian alec baldwin. why does he take the bait without saying anything about the nuclear threat from vladimir putin. that's not worth talking about but alec baldwin we got to get into that by 6:00 this morning he was tweeting about alec baldwin. this is the president of the united states. we saw donald trump propose numerous gun control measures when the crass were rolling at the white house this week. but then we didn't see something else that late night meeting last night at the white house secretly no cameras with nra, apparently. they brought trump back to the nra side.

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>> we have more now on nbc's exclusive interview with vladimir putin who denied any russian government involvement after u.s. charges of election meddling by the russians. but what about russians citizens who were indicted in a special counsel investigation. well, nbc's megyn kelly asked putin that today. >> translator: with all due respect for you personally, with all due respect for congress, you must have people with legal degrees. 100% you do. people who are well educated who must understand that we, russia, cannot prosecute anyone if they have not violated russian law. if you don't have a legal degree i can explain to you. >> i do. >> translator: then you have to under what it takes is an official request to the general prosecutor of the russian federation.

give us a document, give us an official request. >> you said that the last time and now i'm back with an indictment. >> translator: this has to go through official channels not the press or yelling and hollering in the united states congress. >> we'll have more of megyn kelly's reporting from russia in the days to come and we'll be right back. because they don't relieve nasal congestion. flonase allergy relief is different. flonase relieves sneezing, itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose, plus nasal congestion, which pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. and 6 is greater than 1. start your day with flonase for more complete allergy relief. flonase. this changes everything. this one's below market price and has bluetooth. same here, but this one has leather seats! use the cars.com app to compare price, features and value.

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these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them. uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. yesterday we covered the loans that jared kushner's family business received after kushner met with executives from companies making those loans. he met with them in the white house. today another story suggests kushner may have used his public office for personal gain. nbc news today is reporting that federal investigators are scrutinizing whether any of jared kushner's business discussions with foreigners during the presidential transition later shaped white house policies in ways design either to benefit or retaliate against those he spoke with. that's according to people familiar with the investigation so far as well as witnesses who have been questioned by mueller's team.

those witnesses say the special counsel is asking about kushner's efforts to secure financing for his family's real estate properties focusing on his discussions with individuals about qatar and turkey, russia and china and united arab emirates. a spokesman tells nbc says he didn't mix or his former companies business in those contacts and any claim otherwise is false. joining me now is to sort it out is the co-author of that report. i want to start with you. tell us what you know, what you can tell us about the overlay between kushner, the son-in-law of the president and kushner the dealer? the business wheeler dealer. >> right. there are several thing. what we've learned that's new in the die mentions of kushner's business dealings mingling in with his official white house business is that the special counsel is looking at whether there's a link during the

transition with foreigners to policies once he was inside the white house. the other thing that's significant that we've learned is mueller is reaching out to foreign nationals, so for instance in turkey he's reached out to the fbi field office in ankara to see if he can talk to turkish national about the investigation sway new dimension that we didn't before know publicly. >> what do we know so far? do we know he got that loan and he got it using his prestige as the son-in-law of the president? >> we know these things are being scrutinized. we don't know necessarily whether there was specific wrongdoing. but to give you and example -- >> it smells bad, doesn't it? sitting in the white house and negotiating debt deals. >> if there was -- if anything the special counsel is looking at clearly the special counsel thinks is worth looking into. in this instance to give you

another example of what he's looking at is with qatar if you just take that example, the kushner companies had discussions with the government of qatar about possibly funding some of their properties, those talks fell through. there was obviously a blockade that was the white house strongly supported against qatar. >> what was the time sequence between not getting the money wanted and hurting them? >> well, it was weeks, perhaps months. but the sequencing was close because if you think of when the blockade started to take place it was only last spring. >> betsy let's have your reporting on this. he's doing business with middle eastern potentates and then serving u.s. policy. there's a conflict. >> one piece of this qatar story that's caused a significant amount of consternation to qatari officials and diplomats that have to deal with the united states is kushner was a key player in getting the white

house to support the saudis decision to blockade qatar, cutting off food, imports going into that country. severing diplomat ties. rex tillerson the secretary of state opposed the blockade. thought it was a bad idea. qataris saw him as a helpful ally, as someone as america's chief diplomat would potentially be able to resolve that crisis wane that would have been quick and straight forward. but instead rex tillerson getting his way which would have been what the qataris wanted according to multiple reports jared kushner stepped in and played a major role in shifting the white house. instead of having the white house oppose this blockade the white house supported it and that's something where like look if you're a qatari official or diplomat and you look at that and you look at the separation the difference between where the state department is and where the white house is and then you look at the fact that kushner's father according to one report hit up folks in your government for money, folks in your government said no, all the

pieces put together as that, all those facts it looks really terrible. so it's not a surprise that mueller is trying to figure out what the answer to those questions is and if there's anything more sinister going on. >> there's a long pattern, sam johnson, lyndon johnson's brother, nixon's brother, billy carter, history of family, often siblings who just can't resist taking advantage of their relative's power and prestige and always embarrass the president and seems to come with the territory and in this case he's working inside with an official position, kushner. >> this is one of the reasons why if you talk to ethics experts they would tell you, part of what is happening is because kushner made a decision to not fully die sfreft his companies. he didn't completely sell his stake and walk away. >> did he make a decision to get a job inside the white house. >> but also maintain some

connections with his company. so that opens him up to a whole other level of crew tiny. you can't do that job. can't be the head of figuring out if the administration can do a middle east peace deal and not deal with governments that are mixing with his family business, and so ethics experts say what you do in a situation like that is completely just detangle yourself from the business and kushner chose not to do that. >> betsy, i imagine everybody does business with the united states, especially in the middle east where we have a hand in there. have a baseball card on jared kushner. a little baseball card that tells them everything they need to know about kushner. what's on that card? what do they have to work with? how can they manipulate him knowing what they know about him? >> one thing that without a doubt that's on that card is 666 fifth avenue, the clunker of a building in midtown manhattan that jared kushner had his

family company buy in 2007 when the housing market bubble was at the fattest just about to burst. they bought that building for a significant amount of money. they took out a loan of more than a billion dollars. then the housing bubble popped. the building lost ton of its value. early next year the loan is up for kushner companies, for curb nears family company. they have been searching the globe essentially for cash to find a way to pay off that loan. thus far had very limited success. very little evidence this cash00 has gotten them all the capital that they need to make that morning. so, if you're a foreign government official, if you're familiar with the way international financial dealings work and you know that kushner and i had family companies have this major literal liability. that's something to pay attention to. you follow. and look at as a possible vulnerability to exploit. >> looks like fertile territory

for mr. mueller. thank you so much. we rely so much on this great reporting, especially the nbc kind. up next when president trump woke up at 6:00 this morning in the a.m., he tweets at dawn. first thing on his mind was attacking alec baldwin. why does he constantly take the bait instead of focusing on things like russia. this is "hardball". i just got my cashback match,

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welcome back to "hardball". everything that's going on in the white house and around the world right now president trump woke up today and delivered a blistering attack against alec baldwin. in a tweet that's revealed what's on his mind the president said quote alec baldwin whose dying mediocre career was saved by his impersonation of me. bring back darryl hammond funnier and a far greater talent. that's all trump this morning at 6:00 a.m. joining me now is jason johnson. why would a man of any age, of any responsibility let alone the presidency of the united states get up at dawn and begin tweeting against an actor-comedian. what's it about? >> because clearly -- this is beyond narcissism. this is avoidance. i think sometimes donald trump wakes up in the morning as president and looks at security

briefings and says i don't want to deal with that right now. let me fine gossip. let me find something that will end up on tmz. i can't understand how he can be concerned with alec baldwin than other more pressing issues. >> do you think he believes he's hurting baldwin or scorching him a little bit with this attack on his career? does he think it works or does it make him feel better? i don't see how it helps. baldwin is fantastic in this role. he's -- i like darryl hammond. baldwin has this whole new blossoming of his career. it hasn't hurt him. fabulous for him and snl and nbc. i'm in the building here, 30 rock fabulous. why does he want to bring more attention to it as we go to another saturday night? he's promoting the show. >> he's promoting the show and also he's failing the most important trick. remember president bush and dana

car via. he loved the impression. here's the other thing alec baldwin buried him on twitter. you don't start a twitter fight with a comedian. they are smarter and quicker than you and they are always going to get final word. trump should have learned that lesson above and beyond that he's advertising for a show that will make fun of him more. >> trump's attacks on alec baldwin comes one day after vladimir putin called new generation of missiles. has the ability to avoid detection and evade interception by u.s. missile defense systems that are designed to shoot them down. one video showed a nuclear head descending on state of florida. putin's message says nobody listened to russia. listen to us now. now whether putin might be bluffing, the rhetoric is hard to ignore. but ignore it trump did. the president hasn't responded to putin's saber rattling at all yet he responds to alec baldwin.

>> you know, chris, i think it's crazy but i got to say this. this is one time i'm happy trump didn't say anything. i don't feel safe as an american president when the president decides he'll use twitter to do foreign policy. i do think at some point he should meet with the joint chiefs and say is this missile real and how should we feel that putin is putting up cartoon war games videos of attacking mar-a-lago. >> don't call him rocket man, in other words. don't call him rocket man. thank you for that psychological explanation. up next president trump mocked lawmakers saying they are afraid of the nra but it turn out that he might be the one who is most fearful of the gun lobby. what happened at that late night meeting. thumb screws? you're watching "hardball". -right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. -keep going. stop.

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gotten done here is because the gun lobby had a veto power over any legislation that comes before congress. >> the reason i had lunch with the nra on sunday, i called them, i said you got to come over. fellas we have to do something. they have great power. they have great power over you people. they have less power over me. i tell you they are well meaning. >> they have less power over me the nra, right. welcome back to "hardball". in the span of 48 hours president trump has changed his tune on gun control. all it took was a gentle nudge from his friends at the nra. in the wake of wednesday's remarkable televised meeting with lawmakers, trump held a private dinner the leaders of the nra last night. and these are the same people who spent roughly $30 million helping him get elected president. chris cox, head of the lobbying wing of the nra attended the meeting. later tweeted i had a great meeting tonight with donald trump and vice president.

we all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people. president of the united states and vice president of the united states support the second amendment. support strong due process and don't want gun control. roughly an hour later president tweeted good, great meeting in the oval office tonight with nra. it's been more than two weeks since the parkland high school shooting and still have no idea what the president is willing to ask for. but that's part of the trump two step sometimes promise everything and then deliver in the end nothing. tonight the "hardball" roundtable joins me. kimberly, tell me what you're seeing in the several hours -- really 48 hours or so watching the very nice, i think we all enjoyed that give and take with the democratic and republican senators and other people in the

roosevelt room but then with the come of night fall meeting with the nra that might be a lot more important. >> yeah. i think we saw essentially a replay of what the president did with the daca debate play out over guns where initially he brought together lawmakers, had this big discussion on camera, where he threw out all kinds of ideas or expressed support for all kind of things and then was reined in later by the more conservative folks in the nra to really back off some of the thing he expressed support for, from background checks to raising the age limit. the meeting at one point he bandied around the idea of taking guns from people who are deemed dangerous or mentally unstable and do due process later. dianne feinstein rubbing her hands together gleefully at the idea that things could really go

well for the democrats only to find out a couple of days later. this is what happens when you have a president who doesn't have an ideology about guns. he wants to be in the center of it. but when he has that position, that opportunity to lead he sort of leaves it to lawmakers and leaves it to other folks with power like the nra and it looks like nothing is going to get done here. >> do you think he can get away with doing nothing on guns after parkland? i mean nothing. >> it would seem on the one hand not but if we look at the history of this, what he's done over the course of his presidency, it wouldn't be the first time that he's talked a lot about doing something big especially in front of the cameras and then when the cameras goes away he backs off of it. that was classic reality show television the other day and it was great reality show television. but it reminded me of the bachelor it seems like love but nobody ever gets married at the end. doesn't seem like we're anywhere closer to having legislation go through congress or, by the way,

any executive action taken by the white house, the administration about guns. and i don't know when we'll get to that point. >> if you were asked as a reporter to make a projection will there be action on guns as a result of what happened down in florida, will there be any action? anything? >> we could see very tiny incremental change. there's more pressure. and i think the mid-terms are playing a role in a change in congress this year. we see on the ground in states, unlike in previous times a real pressure from voters that something to be done, that it looked like they accomplished something. and i think we can get a sense of that pulse when we look at the way donald trump is handling this. he wants to ride fence. the reason he wants to ride the fence knees there's a sizable group of people, a grouch people who are really amped up about this issue on the other side and he's not willing to just walk away from them and i think that's why he wants to be able

to say one thing on camera and tweet another from the oval office to make everybody happy and probably make no one happy at the end of the day. >> a big crowd of young people and parents and teachers show up in washington maybe up to half a million people fill the streets, will that put him in the position of not wanting to be in the bunker of doing nothing. will that turn him toward action. >> it will get his attention. the issue ever gun will have to start. it can't start at congress. can't even start at the white house. it's going to have to start from the bottom up and that's what you're seeing with this movement of young people really pushing and trying to change minds of people. it is that movement that has spurred retailers to stop selling some of these high powered guns. that's where the action, that's where the energy is right now. i think it will be incumbent eventually on congress to respond to that. i don't think they are the ones that will lead the change. >> on wednesday president trump asked some of the gathered

senators of the meeting why they are so scared of the nra. let's listen. >> the handgun, you can't buy one. you have to wait until you're 21. you can buy the kind of weapon used in the school shooting at 18. i think it's something you have to think about. i'm curious what you did in your bill? >> we didn't address it, mr. president. >> why? because you're afraid of the nra, right? >> of course. toomey is and manchin too. >> i do wonder whether we are in the midst of a change in how this issue is playing out. look in the virginia governor' race last year, exit polls showed that guns was the number two issue for people voting for ralph northjam.

if that's true in virginia there's reason to believe it's true elsewhere around the country but we don't know yet how it will play out. it may be a factor in the end in the senate florida race around parkland. might be a factor elsewhere in the country. >> rick scot is coming out for raising the age to 21 from 18 in florida. state law says now you have to be 21 to buy an assault rifle. ar-15. is that a smart move? >> i think we've seen rick scott responding to his constituents and we have to remember rick scott's name gets thrown out a lot about being a senate challenger to bill nelson in that seat that's up this november. it's about politics. politics is about responding to your voters. and i think that's what we're seeing here. a smart political move is always to do what the majority of your voters want you to do and i think we're seeing that. and the president wants to flippantly joke about the power of the nra.

the nra spend a lot of money advocating for him to be president. a lot of money advocating for members of congress to be president. but when they start seeing the shift in the public and their own membership, polls tell us even their own membership supports background checks that's when we see changes. people are responding to what voters are telling them. >> i'm not sure as florida culture is strong pro gun but doesn't have the rural play chance where the father teaches a son. rick scott can get away with stuff that joe manchin can't get away with or toomey. the round table is sticking with us. next up these three will tell me something i don't know. watch "hardball". eggland's bes. which egg has 6 times more vitamin d, 10 times more vitamin e, and 25% less saturated fat? only eggland's best. which egg is so special,

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and then i use the spray throughout the day. it actually saved my career in a way. biotene really did make a difference. [heartbeat] washington may be unwilling to act on guns, but the same can't be said of the private sector. l.l. bean became the latest retailer to announce it'll no longer sell guns or ammunition to anyone under the age of 21. meanwhile, the outdoor retail giant rei says it is cutting off one of its key suppliers due to the fact the company also makes ammunition and assault style rifles. wow. we'll be right back. sometimes a cough gets in the way of a good night's sleep.

that's when he needs vicks vaporub. proven cough medicine. with 8 hours of vapors. so he can sleep. vicks vaporub. goodnight coughs. we're back with the hardball round table. kimberly, tell me something i don't know. it is friday night. let's hear it. >> this week, the treasury cut about half the funding it was set to send for puerto rico to $2 billion from over $4 billion.

this is the same time a new wave of power outages are affecting nearly 1 million people. and we're a few weeks away from the start of hurricane season. >> how many boats does puerto rico have? >> more if more of the people move to florida. >> zero explains a lot. isaac, go ahead. >> you've had anthony scaramucci in the last day or two coming out hard against john kelly. he is not the only person in the trump orbit who is doing that, trying to seed the idea that kelly should be kicked out. kelly seemed defensive, meeting with reporters at the white house today and talking about the rob porter scandal again. they thought they'd gotten past that in the white house. he dug his hole deeper because he gave another version of what happened. >> thank you. let me go to ginger. ginger? >> all of this chaos in the last 24 hours about tariffs on steel and aluminum, it's not over. i talked to a lot of sources today that phones were ringing

in the commerce department and the white house. business is still trying to get the president to back down or carve out all kinds of exemptions, where the proposed new tariffs would not apply. could be gutted very quickly. >> thank you so much, kimberly, isaac and ginger. we'll be right back. ♪ are you reluctant to eat in public because of your denture? try super poligrip® not only does it hold for 12 hours to reduce denture movement, it also helps provide better bite, seals out 74% more food particles, and enhances your denture fit.

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friday, march 2nd, 2018. here it is, friday, at the end of a long, desperate week in the

donald trump soap opera, with everyone just trying to keep their heads above water. let's call it search for tomorrow. this has been an especially bad week for fans of hope hicks. also, this week, more trouble with jared. lots of fans are wondering whether the son-in-law is using his family ties to prop up his business investments. getting lines of credit he wouldn't have gotten if he weren't meeting the new creditors in the white house. but here's the rub, how does donald trump deal with a son-in-law who is causing him trouble without hurting his beloved daughter ivanka? tune in next week. meanwhile, people are calling mr. trump unglued, like a little off the beat based on the wild trade thing he threw out the other day. some say it was to show general kelly he can do anything he wants. it seems getting crazy. his own lawyer pays off an actress for him, and trump has to dump rob porter for spousal abuse. his son-in-law may be skimming business opportunities on the side. all the time, the potter

himself, donald trump, has to show he's not sweating. somehow, through all of this, show that, yes, even in the 21st century, this father knows best. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. see you monday night at 7:00 eastern. good evening. it's friday night. i'm ari melber in for lawrence o'donnell. unglued. that is donald trump's current condition, at least according to an inside source who just spoke to nbc news. while many may say donald trump's presidency isn't exactly known for being very glue ed together to begin with, this week's chaos has been intense, even grading on any kind of, say, trump curve. think of the new reports that the mueller probe is now eyeing jared kushner and whether his debt and business issues drove any foreign policy corruption inside the trump white house. mueller's team asking witnesses aboutku