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elections and reportedly spent none of it? but first, we could start tonight with hope hicks departure a day after acknowledging he sometimes tells white lies for the president or jared kushner losing top secret access. we could start with new lines of questioning from bob mueller or the freezing out of jeff sessions. we could talk about that remarkable guns meeting with the president's seemingly making democrats points for them. or we can talk about the uncertain future of h.r. mcmaster. here's the president at the gridiron last night. he said, so many people have been leaving the white house, it's been really exciting and invigorating. i like turnover. i like chaos. it really is good. now the question everyone is asking is, who's going to be the next to leave? steve miller or melania? that's terrible, honey, but you love me. right?

with that, let's bring in the panel. msnbc political analyst, "the washington post" white house bureau chief and analyst phillip rucker and former press secretary and ken delandian. thank you for coming in tonight. let's start with the gridiron dinner because this is -- the president to say that the president has had an uneasy relationship with the town of washington with the press i think is something of an understatement. how did -- ken, you were there. how did it come across in the room? >> well, you know, it was a moment of suspense because donald trump avoided the black tie suares. he would have to sit here where they do skits and -- >> we should probably explain that. gridiron is one of the odest clubs in washington. black tie or white tie? >> white tie and tails. >> for men.

and there are as you point out skits from journalists, especially people who, you know, are new to the club and the president traditionally attends and makes a spech. >> that's right. >> president obama from what i know was a hit in the past. >> and george w. bush and many presidents before him. so donald trump passed the test of sitting through the -- as the journalists including colleagues of nbc poked fun at him and then make a speech and be funny himself and of course everyone knows the key to this is is to be self deprecating and that's hard for donald trump and he actually succeeded up front. i would say. for the first few jokes he got a lot of laughs in the room. but then he start -- seemed like he started to veer off script and ad lib. he got a little mean. he said that he needed to take an iq test for congresswoman maxi maxine waters. he called nancy pelosi crazy. i feel like he lost the room a little bit. people were rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. >> phil, you have quite a story

in "the washington post" this morning detailing kind of what's going on behind the scenes and how rattled the president and those around him really are right now. >> that's right. i was surprised given what we know from his mood over the last week and so frustrated and angry behind the scenes and private with his friends, staff, really upset about the russia probe, the negative stories of jared kushner and then there he was for four hours having dinner in front of 1,000 journalists and ambassadors and senators and the swamp creatures he loves to hate and seemed to be in good spirits about it. he laughed at a lot of the jokes. the speech wasn't perfect but it was pretty good. >> he seemed to kind of roll with the punches at least? >> he seemed relaxed last night. >> mark, were you surprised the president decided to do this? he didn't want to play this game. >> not really. i think he went there with good spirits. and he had some fun with it. i'll tell you while i didn't go to this year's dinner, i was

there last year when he spoke and gave the keynote republican. one of the most challenging speeches to do every year. one thing to talk policy but to be funny as a politician, there's a lot of pressure on that. >> ask the house speaker paul ryan. >> we were working on for many days. >> i want to dig into what phil wrote this morning along the colleagues ashley park e and josh dausy. inside the white house the aides describe an air of volatility with an uncontrollable commander in chief at the center. these are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much further president trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. as one official put it, we haven't bottomed out. so, phil, and i want your take, how much further does this go? if we can't bottomed out, what is next? all about russia or more than?

>> more than russia. russia's at the center of it. we know for months that the russia investigation bothered and rattled the president. but he is frustrated with attorney general jeff sessions. he wasn't prosecuting as aggressively as he would have liked to see. he was mad about that dinner that the photograph of the dinner that leaked. but it's more than that, too. it is the scrutiny that his son-in-law jared kushner is under. the white house senior adviser for the web of sort of business entanglements he has and the foreign contacts made in the white house frustrated with other things, too, including the loss of the communication director hope hicks so much more than a communication director and describe her as a defacto therapist for the president and an emotional support and stabilizing force for the president and she is going to be gone. >> i think my producer would be mad if i made a pun about her being his only hope. when where does this leave

president trump? if he is president trump if he is with the people he's closest to? >> it's hard to look back at the first 14 months of the presidency and say the people around him have been effective at restraining some of his, you know, more self destructive impulses. what phil is talking about what's different now is the fact that the mueller probe is getting closer to the president. there is something inexorable about the movement of that and where it's heading and i think that really bothers the president more. i think this is also a person who has always worked with a pretty close-knit circle of advisors, people who he really trusts their loyalty. a lot of those people are gone now and they're hard to replace. we've seen, you know, when somebody leaves this administration, they slide somebody else from another spot into that spot. in nick mulvaney's case they have him do two jobs. there aren't that many people that the president really trusts outside this administration. he still has kellyanne conway there and a few other people, but as some of the people that he really trusts the most are

leaving, as jared and ivanka may have to eventually leave the administration, he's more and more isolated as this goes forward. i just don't know what happens when mueller gets closer to the president and he doesn't have the people that he really trusts around him. >> ken dilanian, how much jeopardy is jared kushner in right now? >> it looks like significant jeopardy, kasie. that was one of a torrent of news actually last week on the mueller investigation that i think contributed to the ratcheting up of this pressure. one was the story nbc news did that said mueller is looking at meetings kushner may have had with foreign officials and whether those meetings during the transition affected policy. as we were sitting there in the grid iron -- >> and those foreign officials were actually sitting there thinking, how do we manipulate jared kushner in order to -- >> there was a story in the washington post that said there was intelligence, intercepts. this guy needs money for his business, we can target him.

nbc reported mueller asked if donald trump coordinated the leaks of the e-mails from the russians to wikileaks. there is a lot of mueller news. the ball seems to be moving forward and trump feels under increasing pressure about it. >> you said you were sitting at the grid iron. i didn't mean to cut you off. >> there was another particular line of inquiry by mueller of the united arab emirates and if they influenced the trump administration. >> phil rucker, let's say ivanka and jared are not able to continue to function in the way that they are. do you think that this might be jared kushner's last month in the white house? and where would losing them leave the president? >> well, losing them would mean he really would be losing his family and he would be left with a paid staff basically. hope hicks, jared, ivanka, they've been like surrogate -- he left the end of last year. there is no indication jared and ivanka are leaving any time soon, but there is one clue, and

we're reading tea leaves here. the clue is that their top spokesman, josh rafael, deputy communications director in the white house, has been the crisis manager for dealing with all of these crises involving jared kushner -- >> very forcefully behind the scene. >> correct. he announced his resignation last week. he is going to be leaving in the next couple of weeks. that's going to be a huge hole for jared and ivanka to fill. >> you've been out of the administration for a little while. how does this feel now compared to what you saw when you were kind of behind the scenes? reince priebus was talking a little bit this morning on abc, how when i left t wasn't quite that bad when i walked out the door. it's gotten a lot worse. is that what it looks like you to? >> it's hard to tell when you're inside and seeing how it's reported on the outside of what it's like. it's usually not very close to what we experience on the inside. you are so focused on your day to day in terms of what is the next issue, i mean, in the white house calm press office, what is

tomorrow's event, the next press conference. you read about what it's supposedly like and it's not really resembling what you come to experience. i can tell you that team is really close. and while i don't want to under estimate the importance of hope or anyone else in the administration -- and she's obviously a wonderful friend and colleague, but these jobs do have high turnover, and they churn people through. and so i have no doubt that the president will have greater people -- >> four. >> four, yes. but he will have not just that role, but in all the roles that he will continue to have great people serving him and moving forward. >> how is it vice-president pence manages to rise above the fray? >> well, the vice-president's role is completely different in some areas. he's out traveling the country right now. he was out on the road over the weekend. i think he's got at least one or two trips this week where he's

out doing a lot of the stumping -- >> he can go a lot of places this president might not be able to go, right? >> it's not about where he can't go. he's doing a lot of the campaign work. he was at the grid iron last night with the president and the first lady and so his staff there, we're working right now on the political side with a lot of foreign travel. >> i keep coming back to all these people, including vice-president pence and hope hicks, they're all piaying whit collar criminal defense lawyers. that is not normal. >> that's how you operate when that's going on in the background. >> john kelly still kind of in trouble, has to rewrite again this week what happened with rob porter. where does he -- how shaky is the ground he's standing on? >> i think the thing that gives him job security is the fact there aren't -- there are people leavi leaving the administration, not a lot of people lining up to do that job. the president has been struggling to replace john kelly, may be forced to sort of keep him in place. there's a lot of -- there's a narrative out there in shall what wash about oh, john kelly put one over on jared and ivanka

the way he sort of turned -- took the pressure off him with the rob porter thing. john kelly, the narrative about him is is that he imposed a process. he brought more order to the west wing and we're not really seeing that. and so, you know, whether he can do -- he's there, but i don't know how long -- like mark said, there is high turnover and donald trump puts people through the ringer more i think than -- >> most. >> most. >> indeed. we're just getting started on "kasie d.c." still to come brand-new reporting just out tonight about what robert mueller is looking for from at least one witness. plus, barack obama had bill clinton for secretary of explaining stuff. donald trump has wilbur ross. we'll let him explain tariffs. plus, congresswoman debbie dingell on finding bipartisan ground to try and bring an end to mass shooting. and as we go to break, we let the flight of the bumble bee take us through the break neck week that was. "kasie d.c." back after this.

>> trump meets with a group of governors. >> and united are essentially splitting with the nra. >> the democratic memo was releeszed. >> mexico's president abruptly -- >> oh, my gosh. >> hope hicks talking with house investigators. >> trump announced today he's a int toed brad parscale as campaign manager. >> gun control legislation is headed to the hill. >> we have some breaking news. jared kushner will lose his access to top secret intelligence. >> hope hicks admitted she tells white lies for the president. >> manafort breaking right now has just pleaded not guilty. >> trump and the u.s. congress bid farewell to billy graham. >> ben carson is in hot water over some lavish interior decorating choice. >> mueller is asking specific and pointed questions. >> javanka and kelly are locked in a death match. >> hope hicks resigning she's out. >> even more breaking news. >> walmart announced it, too,

would raise the age limit. >> couldn't shut off brand-new nuclear weapons. >> new tariffs on steel and aluminum. >> the trade war that is now being launched. >> the dow has lost 500 points. >> the president dubbed his attorney general mr. mcgoo. >> this is crazy. >> sessions defended himself in a rare statement. >> general mcmaster may be departing his role. >> trade wars are good and easy to win. >> the president's economic advisor reportedly threatened to quit. >> breaking news to report. mueller's special prosecutor asking of kushner's ties influenced white house policy. >> it would be a chaos president. >> that ended up being right. more and more people are finding themselves in a chevrolet for the first time. trying something new can be exciting. empowering. downright exhilarating. see for yourself why chevrolet is the most awarded and fastest growing brand, the last four years overall.

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welcome back to "kasie d.c." instead of explaining the impact of the president's tariff hike ourselves, we decided to leave it to commerce secretary wilbur ross. >> this is a can of campbell's soup. in the can of campbell's soup there is 2.6 cents, 2.6 pennies worth of steel. if that goes up by 25%, that's about 6/10 of 1 cent. here's a can of coca-cola. coca-cola has 3 cents worth of aluminum in it. so, if that goes up 10%, that's

3/10 of a cent. i just paid $1.49 for this can of coke. it doesn't mean anything. so, all this hysteria is a lot to do about nothing. >> joining me now, member of the foreign relations committee, senator chris coons of delaware. thank you for joining me. it's nice to see you. >> thank you, kasie. i hope you're not going to ask me to explain what it was commerce secretary wilbur ross was trying to explain in that clip. >> you don't have a coke in hand. that's too bad. senator, i do want to start, though, with the tariffs. there has been quite the worldwide response, both from countries like china, but also close allies of the united states including canada. what is your view of the president's decision in this regard? was this a good idea? >> frankly the president didn't do his homework on this one and this is what happens when you

take bumper sticker level attack on the world trading system that might stir up election rallies, but it is terrible policy and throwing it out there without having done enough work with our allies and industry and partners around the world. the tariffs that the president is threatening to slap onto imported steel and aluminum will principally affect some of our core and vital allies. canada, south korea, some of our european allies. rather than principally affecting china, which is the country he says he's been trying to get their attention on trade issues. i think, for example, rather than withdrawing from the trans-pacific partnership, if the president really wants to strengthen our hand in the world in terms of trade, getting back to the table and negotiating a strong tough fair deal with our partners in the asia-pacific against china would make a lot more sense. so, i frankly think that our allies weren't well prepared for it. the markets took a dive in response to it.

and it's not yet clear to me what exactly the president's goal is in slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum, principally imported from key allies. >> still, i mean this is something that the president ran on, and there are some members of your party, people like joe manchin of west virginia, shari brown of ohio who suggested this could be good policy and essentially those who -- in both parties, republican and democrat -- who have supported free trade policies have essentially left behind the middle of america. what do you say to them? >> there are folks in both parties who have called on the president to impose restrictions on our competitors, whether it's by punishing china for currency manipulation or going after china and others for stealing our intellectual property, this particular move, putting tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, is popular with folks in states where there is still a steel making industry that faces

significant foreign pressure. and so this is something -- this isn't some out of the blue move by the president. he did run on this. he's talked about it repeatedly. what i'm trying to suggest but saying that he didn't fully do his homework was that there is reporting that folks within the white house, within his own administration, and in some of our key allies, capitals around the world, who were utterly unprepared for this announcement. it was the way it was announced and the likely impact it will have that doesn't align with our best economic interests. >> let's switch gears. i want to ask you about the russia investigation as well as russian meddling in our past and future elections. dennis mcdonagh, president obama's chief of staff, spoke to chuck todd on "meet the press" earlier today. let's take a look and i want to ask you about it. >> president asked four leaders in a bipartisan meeting in the oval office to join him in asking the states to work with us on this question. it took over three weeks to get that statement worked out.

it was dramatically watered down. you can ask harry reid and nancy pelosi, even the -- >> and it was watered down on the insistence of mitch mcconnell? >> yes. >> and nobody else? >> yes. >> senator, what knowledge do you have of how that came to be? did mitch mcconnell water down the letter? and do you think that president obama did enough to warn the country ahead of the 2016 election? >> well, kasie, i have no direct knowledge of what dennis mcdonagh is relating there. i wasn't involved in the conversations with the speaker and the majority leader and the minority leader and the house and the senate about warning the american public around 2016 meddling. i do think the obama administration tried to strike the right balance between being forceful in confronting putin personally in the case of president obama, and engaging congress. just a few short weeks before a general election and trying to avoid seeming partisan, the larger question is whether we've

done enough to protect our election that's upcoming here in just a few months in 2018. and the answer clearly is that we haven't. there is reporting out in "the new york times" today that out of a fund of $120 million that was appropriated to the state department to allow them to combat meddling in elections, election interference, none of it, zero, has been spent so far. and although i've joined a bipartisan bill, a good-bye partisan bill that senator langford, senator klobuchar have called the secure elections act, we don't have a pathway to getting that bill passed. as an appropriator, i'm working on a bipartisan basis to get grants out to the states in time, but it is a republican-controlled congress and i'll tell you, my concern is that we are not doing enough bipartisan work to get this done and get this done in a timely way to protect us for the 2018 election. >> i'm glad you raised that "the new york times" report. i was going to ask you about it.

i'm wondering do you plan to ask questions of rex tillerson or can your committee do anything to try and get to the bottom of why exactly none of this money that's been authorized has actually been spent? >> absolutely. the senate foreign relations committee has an upcoming scheduled hearing with secretary of state tillerson. it is striking to me that after the senate, by a vote of 98-2, authorized the president to use new sanctions authority to push back on russia, to punish russia for interfering in our 2016 election. to my estimation, not enough has been done yet, and this new reporting today that this dedicated fund has not been utilized strikes me as just a dereliction of duty by the state department and by the trump administration. we can and should do more on a bipartisan basis. i'm working as an appropriator, as a senator with republican colleagues to try and tackle this problem. but time is really running out. and very recently in the house intelligence committee, we heard

testimony from president trump's own cia director, national security advisor, and director of national intelligence that they believe the russians will attempt to interfere in our next election. they have interfered in democratic elections across western europe and so the time is long past due for us to step forward and take action. and i intend to press secretary tillerson on why this fund has not been appropriately used by the state department. >> senator, before i let you go, march 5th was supposed to be the deadline to find a fix for kids who are here under the daca program. at this point, do you think there is any scenario where congress acts on this topic before the end of the year? >> well, there's two topics i think we need to address in a bipartisan way. tackling gun violence and addressing immigration and the status of dreamers. i was bitterly disappointed that a strong bipartisan bill that

would have solved the status of dreamers was rejected. it got 54 votes because of the president's change in position and active lobbying against it. until we know that the president will support some solution on dreamers, i have a hard time seeing how we're going to get it back on the floor and get it done in time this year. >> senator chris coons, with that rosy assessment, thank you very much. really appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you, kasie. >> just ahead, inside an interesting client dinner meeting. the law firm of sessions, rosenstein and cisco. we'll explain next. i see every time i'm in the field. while this was burning, you were saving other homes. neighbors helping neighbors and strangers alike. - this is what america's about. - sometimes it's nice to see all the good that's out there. bringing folks out, we have seen it in community after community.

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welcome back. our friend jonathan swan at axios is out with a new report tonight with new specifics on what special counsel robert mueller is asking for. this is a courting to a grand jury subpoena that mueller's team sent to a witness last month. axios says mueller is issuing a subpoena for all communications, meaning e-mails, texts, and handwritten notes that this witness sent and received regarding the people that you are seeing now on your screen. that includes president trump, paul manafort, rick gates, steve bannon, hope hicks, and others. the subpoena reportedly asks for

all communications from november 1st, 2015, up until next. nbc news has not yet independently confirmed this report. we should put that caveat out there. ken dilanian, what do you make of this new reporting? what's he looking for here? >> well, he wants all communications from everyone for all time. we should not assume that just because he's asking for this stuff from one witness he doesn't already have it or a lot of it because what's been very clear from our interviews with people who have been before robert mueller is that those guys have a lot of resources at their disposal. u.s. intelligence resources. they have e-mails. they have location information. they have all kinds of communications. they know about meetings you were in that you don't even remember you were in. so, you know, they're going to dot their i's and cross their t's and asking everybody for every scrap of paper they have. they know about the communications between those people. >> is this something like, for example, what may have happened with rick gates where he's having negotiation was mueller about how to plead and suddenly

he's lied to mueller because mueller knows from some other magical way -- >> absolutely, that is why that is so bizarre. rick gates is negotiating with the mueller team about a plea and he allegedly lies to them and they have a paper that showed he lied. >> is he telling everybody this is going to be over soon and not to wore sni >> we passed thanksgiving, the initial date this was supposed to be over, then christmas and january. he's not telling everyone it is going to be over soon. what he is saying, we're going to cooperate, the white house is cooperating and mueller at some point in the near future is going to reach a conclusion that the president did not collude, that there was no collusion with the campaign. that, of course, is separate from the other investigation mueller is doing, which is into obstruction of justice on the part of the president and things like firing jim comey, for example. >> right. and jeff sessions who is the topic of our next discussion. phil rucker and his colleagues at the washington post are

reporting that the president seegted with anger over cable news coverage of this photo. it came by axios, shows attorney general jeff sessions at dinner with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein who over sees the rush vegas. the outing was described in news reports as an act of solidarity after the president attacked sessions on twitter that same morning. and after reports surfaced this week that the president has been referring to sessions as mr. magoo in private, yes, mr. magoo. he unleashed yet another joke at the white tie grid iron dinner last night. mr. trump reportedly told the crowd he had offered his attorney general a ride to the event, but he recused himself. here's former white house chief of staff reince priebus weighing in this morning. >> the president has made up his mind in regard to how he feels about the recusal. he feels like that was the first

sin, the original sin, and he feels slighted by it. he doesn't like it. and he's not going to let it go. >> so, eli, jeff sessions and the president, is this a relationship that is getting better, getting worse, is it a stand still of negativity? >> oh, it's gotten worse. i don't know where it is. seems like a game of chicken now, right? the president insults jeff sessions. the attorney general goes out at somewhat less subtly than the president, not very subtle, has this dinner in a public place. this is basically a response to the president. that's how people have to communicate with the president. they don't go into a room and hash out their differences. and i think jeff sessions understands that there is not going to be -- this president is not amenable to a conversation like that. this president, as reince priebus said, has made up his mind. that ship has sailed. so, as long as the president isn't going to fire jeff sessions, jeff sessions is going to be there and rod rosenstein is going to be there and that's what rankled this president as the mueller probe goes forward.

>> jeff sessions is somebody we know, we've recounted this time after time considering how events have unfolded. he was up on that stage way in the beginning of the trump campaign, wearing the make america great again hat. when you look at all of this, does it feel to you as though jeff sessions has turned on the president or is he still trying as hard as he can to get into the president's good graces? that photo suggests that's not the case. >> he's doing his job. this president is frustrated by the pace of washington, d.c. he generally has been, why wasn't this done yesterday? why wasn't this completed yesterday? he convenienvents his frustrati whether that be on twitter, but he's let ing it known he wants this concluded. by going through the i.g. process, looking into hillary clinton, how the fbi handled those things, and potential impropriety by some agents and a small group of people at the fbi, he believes that needs to be done. he's basically letting it be known he wants it done yesterday, he wants it done

fairly and he wants it looked into. >> ken? >> i think it's also pretty clear that donald trump thinks that jeff sessions should be his lawyer. he's actually the attorney general of the united states. he tweeted i've had the best legal advice my whole life now i have this guy. he's not your guy. that's the issue here, he's the attorney general. you're right, he's doing his job and parts of his job is to meet with rod rosenstein and donald trump clearly does not like that. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much for your time tonight. really appreciate it. >> you bet, kasie. >> coming up we have a look at how your tax dollars are hard at work in washington. you may be surprised or not. "kasie d.c." back after this. i am taking the steps to own a home because i want my children to know it's all so that they can have a better life. oh my gosh. this is amazing. we're so much closer to home ownership.

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what i told them going forward is this. there's a change occurring. you're going to accommodate the security threats as they exist. you're going to accommodate those all ways, alternate ways, up to and including flying coach. that's going to happen on the very next flight. so those things are happening right away. >> the pressure continues to mount when it comes to the trump administration's spending habits. epa chief scott pruitt is now promising changes to his travel practices despite receiving what he calls, quote, unprecedented threats. pruitt says he will fly coach from now on instead of first class. then there's the case of ben carson's $31,000 dining room set which was reportedly ordered for his office at the department of housing and urban development at the urging of his wife candie.

carson has apparently tried to rescind the order after he was sharply criticized for going $26,000 above the allotted budget. i'm just going to go ahead and say you can get a dining set at ikea for what is less than the allotted budget at housing of urban development. you covered scott pruitt. it seemed like it took a lot of pushing to get him to walk this back. >> right. this is the guy who last year went to colorado, connecting flight to denver was canceled. we'll charter a jet for $5,000. flying first class all around the world, spending $25,000 to put a soundproof booth where he can have private phone conversations inside his office. that's a lot of money at the epa. and you know, what happens when we're focused -- i mean, trump makes it hard to focus on what's happening at the agencies. when we do focus on the agencies, we're focusing on the

administrators, the secretaries and maybe excessive spending in certain places like you just outlined. and what that does is that obscures what the agencies are actually doing or not doing. in hud's case, there are probably a lot of programs that are not being funded, programs for poorer families, housing programs. at the epa -- >> and a lot of changes in regulation. >> this administrator has rolled back a lot of different environmental protection ands those don't get covered the same way either. there is so much going on and there are legitimate questions to be asked about the way these folks are spending taxpayer dollars. can't cover everything. >> mark, quickly before we go, is this draining the swamp? how is this draining the swamp? >> i think the president is getting to that. i think we've got some issues right now as we've seen where some folks are getting adjusted to the way washington works and how you should be mindful of how -- mindful of the taxpayer dollars. and the good thing is that they're getting those things taken care of. i would have preferred they got them taken care of earlier.

but get back to doing the job, cut the regulations, let's get the reform moving. >> the rules are a little bit different when you are spending other people's money. eli stokols and ben, thank you for being here tonight. i really appreciate it. just ahead, congresswoman debbie dingell joins me on set. she is leading a bipartisan ert to prevent the ones like stoneman douglas high school from happening again. that's next on "kasie d.c." iend, gathered here are the world's finest insurance experts. rodney -- mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. the list goes on. how about a discount for long lists? gold. mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching almost effortlessly. it's a gift. and jamie. -present. -together we are unstoppable. so, what are we gonna do? ♪ insurance. that's kind of what we do here.

a lot of times by the time you go to court it takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures. i like taking the guns early. take the guns first, go through due process second. >> how honest do you want to be? imagine if barack obama had said that. just ignore due process and start confiscating guns. if he was a dictator we would have denounced him first. someone would be talking impeachment, someone would be mutt erring is he session. >> one of the risks how to address gun violence in the wake of the parkland shooting. those are the focus of a bipartisan work group in congress. congresswoman debbie dingell of

michigan and her partner up tan are working on the response to parkland shooting. their work continues on the backdrop of more gun related incidents in u.s. schools this week including one in dingell's home state. just twoago, a 19-year-old student killed both of his parents in a central michigan university hall. congresswoman debbie dingell joins us. thank you for coming in on oscar night. let's start with guns. you're working on this working group. how are -- are you -- you think you can get anything done, especially in a republican house of representatives? the speaker paul ryan said last week doesn't think we need to do anything except perhaps make the changes. >> i'm an optimist. i think it's important this time we not go back to the same corners and have the same discussion and everybody sits in there and we're not going to do this and do that. i think the kids to be see those

kids out there who are -- no child should be afraid to go to school. no child should be afraid. kids shouldn't be doing drills where they're hiding in classes. i think our young people are articulate. i'm hopeful of our kids saying we need to do something. fred is and i are a part of problem solver caucus. it's an equal number of democrats and republicans. i think people want to see something get done. i was watching tucker a minute ago. he's very correct. if a democratic president tried to do this, i was there in 1994. everybody would be screaming. we have a republican president saying we need to do something. i think there are places we can find common ground. i think we have to do something. >> do you agree with president trump that due process should be? >> i'm trying to be careful here. due process does matter. i'm going to be very honest you

know. you tweeted something i didn't know when you twittered it on wednesday. that joi'm going to introduce legislation this week. >> i appreciate you're bringing that up. why is it impossible to recall guns? so if a gun manufacturer manufactures a defective product that is injuring people going off. there's no power inside the governmen government to recall it. you're referencing your husband john dingell who apparently put -- i didn't know it either that prevents this from happening. >> the point i actually was going to make, i think, i'm married to probably one of the strongest second amendment defenders in this country. >> yeah. >> so i have lived with a man and his son they're both. but i lived with a man that

shouldn't have guns. i think i probably see both sides better than most people do. and i know there are people that can have guns and, you know, for all the reasons. but there are people that shouldn't have access to guns. now the story that you have read and i read after i read your twitter, so twitter does work. at some point in the '60s or '70s i was a child that hadn't met john dingell. i think someone is worried someone is going to take their guns away. there are probably people that think that. that's not realistic or pragmatic at this point. at some point before i ever knew about guns or could talk about guns and i'm still not the world's expert on every kind of gun there is, a decision was very clearly made. people were concerned they would try to take their guns away and they would use them to ban guns. we're going to introduce

legislation when a gun is defective, like any other product, trying to work it through so we don't give everybody heart attacks, which i'm sure we are. who is the right person to do it and it's on defective guns. not anything else. >> somebody who wants to be a law-abiding gun owner that has a gun that malfunctions. i want to ask you and you referred to this. you are also working on domestic violence-related legislation. and amy klobuchar talked about this. the president mentioned it in the meeting. do you have any hope that's something? >> here is where i think we can find common ground. i think that there is agreement we need to tighten the background check. we have a bipartisan bill that is sitting in the house. john dingell was somebody who helped get the background checks into place. and people don't understand that right now the data that needs to be going into it is not going into it for a variety of reasons. if you have been a married

domestic violence and you're convicted, you cannot have a gun. what our bill would do is if someone was a dating partner or had been in a relationship or stalker and convicted of having -- if they had a felony conviction, they would not then be able to own a gun. >> right. >> and we know you're five times more likely, a woman is in domestic violence situation to die if there is a gun present. so we're trying to time that and the president said that should be part of it. so we hoped that would be it. the red flag during the last week when we were home. fred upton and i met with everybody together and separately. we met with prosecutors, law enforcement, judges, mental health, aclu, schools, educators, teachers. >> all the stakeholders. >> everybody. and everybody said you need to have the tools. so if you deem someone to be a threat to themselves or to the community, you've got the ability to take the gun away.

>> yeah. we're looking at that, as well. >> quickly, before i let you go on the midterms, what is your -- are democrats going retake the house of representatives? >> i say i don't mean to be debby downer. i would rather be where democrats are now. but it's a long time between now and november. and we need to remember there are whole lot of jobs -- a whole lot of issues people care about and the economy front and center is one of them. we got talk about the economy. >> congresswoman debbie dingell, thank you. when we continue, another full hour of "kasie dc" with zero hope hicks puns this time. i promise. plus our team of dvrs watching the sunday morning political shows so you don't have to. we're back after this. mine's way better.

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>> the president called the attorney general disgraceful. >> john kelly reportedly intent on sidelining kushner and ivanka trump. >> sudden changes on gun control. >> the russia investigation that seems to be moving closer to the white house. >> morale is the worst it's ever been. >> hope hicks announced her departure in the west wing. >> the 25th top official to leave. >> the drama is there but that is how the president makes decisions. >> the president has been ill served, in my view, by staff. it becomes more difficult if you're going to be sitting at thanks giving din we are that person. >> it makes it more complicated with family. >> at any other time with any other white house, any one of these stories would trigger nonstop coverage. >> it could be even worst. president trump reportedly started his own doctor-recommend doctor-recommended diet. is hangry? joining us ann garron,

philip rucker, and tim alberta, and nbc news national security and justice reporter julia ainsley. thank you for being here. i don't even know where to start. i have a list that includes jeff sessions, kushner, gun control, russia investigation, hope hicks, and i loved what righein priebus said. this is how the president makes decisions. >> it is. and we saw last night at the grid iron where he was giving the comedic routine. but he actually said, look, i love chaos. i thrive on chaos. i manage with chaos. this is how he ran his businesses, his real estate empire. it's how he ran "the apprentice" and the white house. there is a lot of credit schism of his management style. but trump's defenders say he got tax cuts done and he's cutting regulations in the agencies and stock market seems okay.

>> mitch mcconnell would say he put a lot of federal judges on the bench. axios writes this week. ann, you read a lot about america's position in the world. how does what is happening in the big picture with the white house, i mean, we're caught up in it every day. i can't even keep up sometimes with what happens in a single day. what goes on in the white house mean for the rest of the world? >> i mean, i think actually the trade fight we appear to be about to be having it is a focussing moment on that point. this is exactly what the rest of the world has been afraid of from the moment that donald trump emerged as a viable political candidate. that he would act on instinct. that he would pursue populist and protectionist policies.

he, alone, has the power to do as president of the united states. and, i mean, it's fine we're about to have a populist mixed up government in italy. you don't control world markets. he does. and when there's chaos, when there are decisions made, apparently on a, you know, dime and blurted out during an unrelated meeting at the white house, as happened with the trade issue this week. it freaks everybody out. and i think we will see reaction to that fact. >> julia, one of the stabilizing forces in, in some ways, for the president, at least personally has been jared kushner and his wife ivanka trump. it may be they becoming a source of additional chaos. >> that's right. additional chaos. as we saw the drum beat of reporting about kushner this week. what my colleague and i wrote on

friday was about how robert mueller is connecting these things. he wants to not just look at the business ties, but see how it influenced the white house policy. it gets us into an even further level of chaos. it's how some of the things that he said, for example, when he endorsed the blockade of qatar, could have been influenced. he may have heard something from the son-in-law to say this is the wau you should be pushed in a certain direction without the dl deliberative process. it's clear that mueller is looking at that these strings. >> this is, in many ways, an unprecedented situation. you have somebody that is close to a president who is potentially influencing foreign policy decisions because it will help him in a business way.

in some ways with, it's something we suspected might happen. it seems like we have more evidence than ever before. >> it is unprecedented. one of the parallels that has been drawn over time in kushner's relationship is that of robert kennedy. this is different. it involves beusiness interests and family business interests on both parts. both the trumps and the kushners. we have wondered for a long time where the qatar decision came from. >> is he totally out of the blue? >> yeah. it was another thing that trump blurted out. all of a sudden he was like, great, we're going full bore on, you know, on that. and, you know, everybody started going wait, where did it come from? that's what the state department says not to do. right. >> right. >> if this is the answer where the cqatar decision came from, it's interesting. >> tim, what is your sense of how the rest of the republican party is interacting with the

president these days as these, i mean, the tariff policy is completely contrary to what the party has ever said about free trade and everything else. and, you know, i think there was kind of a sense that the president said a lot of stuff on the campaign trail. at the end of the day, they would be able to run the show. it doesn't seem so. >> that's right. there are two things that were completely blind siding the republican elite. and the one was, obviously, guns. when the president came out and suggested that due process may be suspended in an attempt to take away guns from people who are facing mental challenges or should not have them, depending on circumstance. i think that was just so far out of left field that folks on the hill, folks inside the white house were just dumbfounded by it and couldn't make sense of it. and, obviously, sort of scrambled to try to make sense of it and talk the president out of that position. tounge a lesser extent, they were surprised. a lot of them, to see, to your

point about, you know, listen to what -- don't listen to what the president says. look at what the president does. it's a common refrain from the republicans since last january. i think a lot of them felt like the talk on trade and tariffs were going to be that. it was talk. it was never going to be actionable. age lot of those same folks also feel a little bit blind sided over the last four or five days, certainly when they've heard some of the talking points from the white house. they have not gotten the nuance they might have expected when it comes to exemptions and, et. cetera. on those two things you're seeing a lot of nervousness in the republican establishment. right now in d.c. in a way you didn't a couple of months ago. a lot of same folks felt tax reform was going to be a turning point and they were coming into 2018 with a head of steam. a lot of momentum. they're not feeling that way now. >> one thing we have not yet talked about tonight that struck me, and you're mentioning of due process and kind of the

president's relationship with the law. he was at a fund-raiser in mar-a-lago over the weekend, and talked very highly about president xi who is changing the chinese constitutions so he can serve longer. he said, quote, "he's now president for life. i think it's great. maybe we'll have to give it a shot someday." phil, i mean, he seems to not be able to -- ever single time there's an autocrat that he encounters, he only seems to have glowing wonderful things to say. >> that's right. not only with xi, who trump forged a pretty good relationship with, the chinese president, but also with his praise for vladimir putin of russia. his praise for duterte, his praise for president erdogan in turkey. when you talk to trump's advisors they say, look, the president really admires the strength of their leadership. he admires their results in their elections, of course, are

not always fair elections. >> yeah. >> but he admires the strength with which they govern their countries and the sort of absolute power authority they have in their countries. >> what kind of real impact does it have? the u.s. is still involved in democracy promotion abroad, right? >> yeah, umm, yeah, that's sort of falling down the list. you don't hear very much about it the at the state department these days. and i'm saying this in a joking manner. it's true. you don't. it's not first off the lips in any meeting. it isn't even listed as a key priority in talking points for a lot of meetings. and that is a huge change not only historically but it's a huge change for republican administration. the last republican administration we had was about democracy promotion. often criticized for it. and then we had, you know, the

sort of half in and half out democracy promotion during the obama administration with the arab spring. they were also criticized for it. to the extent there's a coherent theory here in trumpism, it's that this is not our problem. we are transactional. we deal with countries as they are. not as we hope them to be. >> right. reciprocity is a favorite word of this president. the panel is staying put. when we come back the global game of risk with russia. as washington and moscow step up their arms games. plus. >> i came out of there convinced that the president was in favor of comprehensive background checks, protective orders, raising the age of those allowed to buy assault weapons, and the question, really, is what is he going to do about it today and tomorrow? senator chris murphy on whether to take the president at his word after that incredible meeting.

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welcome back to "kasie dc" relations between russia and the western world have been particularly tense lately. on thursdays, russian president pollute announced his military has tested new nuclear weapons, including a missile he says is, quote, "invincible." that same day the u.s. approved the sale of 210 anti-tank

missiles to ukraine. former k former cia deputy director michael morrell summed it up. >> there should be no doubt in anyone's mind after the invasion of georgia, the invasion of ukraine, the intervention in syria, and the meddling in our election, the attack last week by russian mercenaries on u.s. forces in syria that we are, again, in a cold war. >> do you agree with the assessment? are we in a new cold war? >> i mean, this has been a phrase that people have used and then backed away from over the now more than decade since the georgia invasion. we're a whole lot closer to a new cold war than we have been at any point over that decade. and i think the key change there is what is happening in syria. these aproxy wars.

it's a different kind of cold war. we're not building up huge nuclear arsenals. >> it's not an arms race in that way. >> it's not an arms race in that way. frankly russia doesn't have the economic mite to be able to do that now. they are no longer the soviet union. they don't have the resources at their beck and call. they can do what they're doing in syria which is thwart our every move and make it embarrassing, difficult, and expensive for the united states to do what it thinks it needs to do in the world. that's a proxy cold war. >> right. julia, we were talking about the underwater drone we mentioned that putin is bragging about. what is it? >> like bond level scary. but this is another thing. like, his point is that they don't actually have these capability, but this is something that putin has been bragging about this week. being able to, essentially, launch what would be a torpedo that can go underwater and not have to go up against u.s.

missile defense systems. in our own words, nbc reporting reigned down the radio active sludge on a city. that's how it would work, in theory. it's terrifying to think of. they're not at that point. it would be the nastiest of dirty bombs. this is something they're trying to develop. i think a lot of countries around the world, including the united states has looked into underwater drone capabilities. but at this point, because of their military might, it's not where it once was. it's not where ours is. there's a lot of talk and sort of muscle flexing from putin at this point. but three u.s. intelligence officials told nbc news this week they that are not at the point to be able to launch anything like that. >> how much of how putin is approaching this, phil, tim, either of you jump in. how much of this is about how president trump consumes news? i mean, if putin says something, says i can do x or y or z and our intelligence is saying probably not. but the president hears that and

sees it on the news. >> he does hear it and hears it from other world leaders, too. remember around new year's day when kim jong-un said i have a big nuclear button on my desk. trump saw that. he saw the video of it. he read what was said. i think within a day he was tweeting my button is even bigger than yours. trump is very aware of what the leaders are saying publicly. he sees the commentary on television and he reacts or at least thinks impulsively in real time to what they're saying. >> there are still russia hawks in the republican party, believe it or not. do they think this president has blind spot that will prevent him from seeing all of this? are they sort of resigned to the fact think they can handle it themselves? >> i think privately a lot of republican leaders in congress will tell you that the one thing that keeps them up at night is trump's relationship with the rest of the world. specifically this geopolitical

cube with russia and syria and now north korea in the mix with shipping material to syria. and, of course, you know, as was alluded to the clip. you have scores of russian mercenaries killed last week. i feel it should be front and center on every newscast. age lot of americans probably don't realize that. all of that is sort of a backdrop to, yeah, i think more than guns and trade and his tough talk on any other number of things, there are a lot of republicans on capitol hill who still are sort of in the traditional lane as foreign policy hawks. >> ronald reagan conservatives. >> yeah. come from the real cold war era. yeah, i think when you talk to the folks privately, well, they may express some dissatisfaction or consternation with the new cycle dejour. this is something they feel is

an external issue and they do express a greater level of concern about. we have very few of them saying it on the record. >> julia, thank you for coming in tonight. we'll be watching for your reporting on nbc news this week. ahead, my conversation with senator chris murphy about why he isn't holding his breath for wholesale change on guns. for that breath-taking meeting with the president. "kasie dc" back after this. -i've seen lots of homes helping new customers 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.

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this week during school, a teacher in dalton, georgia barricaded himself in his classroom and fired a revolver through a window. when the principal tried to unlock the door. >> i'm sorry. did you ask for help in terms of depression when you heard he was depressed. did he ask for help from counsellors? >> as far as i know, he was fit to be at work and i'm not aware of any current depression. >> you mentioned earlier you were surprised because it was him. why are you surprised? >> because he's a good teacher. and i would be surprised with any of our teachers if that occurred. it's not just him. our teachers care about our

kids. they take care of our kids. it certainly shocked me if one of their staff members, you know, pulled out a gun out in the classroom and fired it. >> randall davidson was well known because he's the radio voice of the dalton high school football and basketball teams. but he also had at least three reported runnings in with police since 2016. one time he erroneously confessed to having his girlfriend killed. according to the atlanta journal constitution, during another incident last year, he disappeared from campus after saying he didn't feel well. police found him hours later sitting on a curb and he wouldn't respond. and in a third incident he called authorities saying he set his car on fire. when he arrived, his son coaxed a bolt action rifle from his hands and his wife reportedly handed over two more firearms. davidson was hospitalized for a

mental evaluation. meanwhile, a week ago, in ohio, a 13-year-old boy committed suicide at school. now police say he was planning on shooting others before apparently changing his mind. police base that on a series of text messages, which began on the day of the parkland shooting. the point? that mental health and guns continue to make for a dangerous combination in our schools. even when they don't rise to the headlines of parkland, florida. chris murphy was in the meeting with president trump last week. i asked him whether it felt like a real turning point? >> it was remarkable. it surprised me that at times the president seemed to be outflanking even the most arkansardent anti-gun supporters in the room.

and the question is, really, what is he going to do about it today and tomorrow? all he needs to do is convince 10 to 15 republicans, not even the majority of their caucus, to support some of these measures and it'll pass. basically every democrat will join in supporting it. i'm seeing this play before where the president talks a good game in one of these televised meetings but doesn't do any follow up. i hope this time is different. >> do you trust the president on this issue? >> well, i think the president genuinely wants a real deal on background checks. but i just don't know he's going to do the work to make it happen. i don't think he wasn't telling the truth in that meeting. i just know that it's going to take more than his words in a meeting to get it done. i think the president realizes that this issue is changed and

there's a real political risk as a republican being against all of these changes to our gun laws that are supported by 90% of americans. and, you know, maybe he's a bit of a policy chameleon so he can make that shift much more quickly than other republicans in congress can who have been attached to the nra and voted with the nra for others. i think other republicans should pay attention to trump's performance. >> what do you think is changing out in the country? i mean, this has been an issue that, you know, frankly, the nra refused to give an inch and, therefore, republicans in congress refused to give an inch. i mean, do you think this is a real turning point that republicans are going to lose elections over this issue? >> i don't think that there is a before and after momenting or turning point on the issue. i think what you have seen since sandy hook is the gradual accumulation of power. year by year more people signing

up and joining up. more and more voters elevating the issue of guns when they come to the polling place. eventually there will be an election where a bunch of n nra a-plus members lose. for the first time, you can see that the anti-gun violence movement is more powerful than the nra. >> you and other democrats met with a group of a collection of these anti-gun violence groups to try to plot a strategy. do you think that this is a time where democrats can run against the nra in a way we haven't seen before? i mean, there have been democrats in a lot of rural states you have people facing tough elections. >> take a look at virginia. it was a turn out surge amongst democratic voters that ended up electing ralph northumm and nearly taking back control of the house of delicates. the number one issue is health care. the number two issue was guns. the number two issue before

taxes. before immigration. for both republicans and democrats. there's plenty of evidence to suggest it's a turn out issue. it actually generates a lot of democrats to the polls that is going to be the biggest question in 2018. will we see young voters? will we see suburban voters turn out in big numbers? i think that in many swing districts for republicans being in lock step with the nra is going to be a bigger liability than before. >> you put your name on this fix nix bill you worked on with john cornyn. is there from frustration from your colleagues? >> i suspect ultimately we're going to win on the issue by winning elections. that being said, this isn't a political issue for me. this is ultimately the most important issue that i work on because of my emotional connection to these parents who

are all my age, whose kids are my kids' age in sandy hook. if i can show progress, if i can start to get republicans used to voting in favor of gun control measures, that doesn't actually cost them votes in their republican primary back home, then i'm going to take that progress. i think it's not enough for this moment. and so i am going to demand that we at least have votes on some other issues on the senate floor that will be of much more consequence than fix nix. but i want to make progress. >> you mentioned the parents that you have worked with. what have you learned through your conversations with them about what they want to hear from lawmakers or not. >> i think what you have to understand about the sandy hook parents, for many of them, when one of these stratetragedies ise news. they spiral. they literally relive what they went through in december of 2012 when they watch parkland or they

watch chair charlton. these are awful days for these parents. that makes it even more heroic they are up on capitol hill within 24 or 48 hours trying to push, once again, for the changes they think will stop one of these tragedies. i don't know how the parents of sandy hook keep it together. to them, you know, they know what the solutions are. they want the assault weapons gone. not every single one of them but they want universal background checks. yet even if it doesn't happen, they continue to come up here day after day. >> your national profile has risen in youred a your advocacy issue. what are you thinking in the future? >> i'm not thinking about running for president. my focus is being on a great senator. i can't imagine leaving the senate until i get a victory on

the issue of gun violence. i was sworn in as these parents were burying their children. and i feel like i was sent here for a reason. to deliver on this issue. i'm going keep working at it here. >> okay. one last time. you're telling me there's no chance you're running for president in 2020? >> i have absolutely no plans to run for president. >> of course, that's going to be a conversation we'll be having with a lot of democrats over the coming months. but let's focus in on guns. tim alberta, i want to ask you about what the president said about due process around guns. and you mentioned earlier, you know, how shocked everybody was by that. chris murphy suggested when i talked to him he thought there were some republicans that might be willing to change their minds in some cases about gun legislation. did the way that the president approached this, is it going to make republicans more or less likely to be potentially

breaking with the nra? >> that's a great question. i think, actually, the folks who are most distraught or should have been most distraught at what the president said regarding due process were democrats who want to get something done on this. when it was beginning to look like you were going have the political will collectively to take it on. maybe it was going to be the giant leaps that some folks would like to see. you were going to see baby steps, it looked like. and whether that's strengthing background checks, raising ages, looking at something like extended clips in magazines. there seemed to be real momentum for a few days on capitol hill. and i think it felt like talking with some people on the president's orbit including a couple of nra board members who were part of his campaign, part of the transition. when he said the thing about due process and you can -- the whole room sort of froze. i feel like for democrats they worried that was going to have the effect of sort of startling and throwing such a scare into gun owners. and into the republican base and

into the nra's political universe it was going to sort of ricochet back ward and undo the potential for progress that everyone had seen leading up to that. >> right. and ben sasse one of those people. phil, you were going to jump in on where the president is? >> yeah. to take a step back on trump and guns, we have to remember he -- this is such a foreign issue for him. you know, he say he owns a gun. he's not part of the gun culture. he's not part of gun country. he's from the upper east side of manhattan. we were talking to some administration officials this week to report out his thinking on this, and it seems like he's motivated by emotion, by the arguments he hears in the room the other day with the senators, he was just seeking consensus and throwing things out there. and he doesn't have a real core conviction other than where are my people at? my people are the nra members and so he's very much loyal to what the nra wants on this

issue. but he doesn't come from it like a personal place. >> why did he say, then, he accused the senators sitting around the table you're afraid of the nra. i'm not afraid. >> he thought it was cool to stand up to the nra because for the two weeks or so after the shooting that's when he kept hearing from the students that were on tv pleading with washington. the grown ups in d.c. to do something. he was moved by that. he watched it closely and he monitored what he felt was public opinion out there, which was to stand up and do something. that's where the comments came. >> i think it's, also, notable, though, that where that whole due process comment came from is what seems to be sort of an visceral feeling on trump's part. that there is a bad connection between mentally disturbed people and guns. that was what he was saying was it's not the guns across the country. it's that when there's a reason to think that someone is mentally disturbed, police don't have enough power. that's actually not a completely

crazy town, you know, idea in current gun debate. the way he said it and the context in which he said it. >> right. >> your point is well taken. when we come back, an interview from the maiden voyage of "kasie dc" comes full circle. at your next cocktail party, resist the urge to say texas is going purple. there are brand new reasons for a wave. i'll explain next. so why accept it from your allergy pills? most pills don't finish the job 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.

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are you going to challenge roger wicker in the primary? >> undecided yet. based on the results in alabama a couple of weeks ago, the race is more compelling. >> that was from the debut episode of "kasie dc" this week mississippi chris mcdaniel made it official. >> donald trump told us he wanted to drain the swamp. and i'm going to go there to help him drain the swamp. [ applause ] [ applause ] mcdaniel, who is himself a republican is challenging roger wicker and running to his right. just one day before trump tweeted his support for wicker

writing, quote "i'm with him in his re-election all the way." tim al beberta, write it down. mcdaniel is a ted cruz republican kind of always has been. do you think there's a chance he could beat roger wicker. how much of a problem is that, ultimately, for republicans? >> i think there's a chance. i talked to a couple of folks who did polling in mississippi. wicker is not terribly strong. in some ways, obviously, luther strange arrived to the senate and a place holder. wicker is a true incumbent. there were some shades of alabama in mississippi. you can see some of the parallels here beginning to take shape. the president, by all accounts, doesn't have much of a relationship with wicker other than the fact he's a rank and file republican senator who is an incumbent and friendly to the white house and voted with the white house on any number of things. so trump is trying to show some loyalty here. trying to project a sense of

allegiance with republicans on capitol hill who have helped him move his agenda. and yet it would seem that in mississippi some of president trump's core supporters are going to be behind mcdaniel. >> right. >> how does it play out? is there going to be attention? if bannon were in the president's good graces. >> yeah. >> he would have something to say. >> right. bannon was a key part of the decision makings and still involved, in some ways, behind the scenes. it has been a dilemma for the president. getting involved in this and losing the primary. >> the primaries. it's tricky for him. and he's going to have a lot of these decisions to make over the next couple of months. it's risky. you look at a state like mississippi, he's jeopardizing his support in a state that he won bigly, as he would put it. but getting behind wicker was saying it's important for the senate republican conference for them to know that the president has their back when they're running in primaries given that they're voting for his agenda on

tax cuts, on health care, and everything else. >> mitch mcconnell stood behind every incumbent no matter what. it's not a policy that democrats enforced. just ahead, though, two presidents. two pioneer social media strategies. we'll talk to president obama's head blogger. ♪ [screaming & crying] [phone ping] with esurance photo claims, you could have money for repairs within a day... wow! that was really fast. huh. ...so it doesn't have to hurt for long. hmm. that's insurance for the modern world. esurance. an allstate company. click or call.

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this week was just like any other for the president of the united states, and then it was full of tweeting. in the last seven day, he riled up his base covering immigration, russian collusion, trade, the economy, second amendment, opioids, meeting with the nra, and, of course, alec baldwin. al alec with a "c." my next guest knows how to use the internet to reach out to voters and how to write his own novel. joined by president obama's chief blogger. sam, thank you so much for coming in. i appreciate it. you must be glad you left political internet blogging when you did. >> yeah. it's incredible. when i was obama's blogger in

2008, i mean, i thought through everything i blogged. of course, i got it vetted. it was a slow process. relatively slow process. and, to me, it felt how many people it took to go through mitt romney's tweets. it was layers and layers just to prove a tweet. i want to talk about your book, especially in the context of this kind of new world. you had something of a unique experience as one of only a handful of white kids at a school that was primarily african-american. can you walk us through a little bit of what your experience was like and how it firefightinform book. >> in sixth grade i went to martin luther king, jr. middle school. if you try to find the most segregated schools in this country, they often have the name martin luther king school. he was the great champion of integration. in sixth grade i did go to a

most lly black and latino publi school. this novel grew out of that experience. a lot of what i experienced early on and which the hero of my novel experienced was bullying, getting made fun of, getting called white boy. what this novel is really about is a friendship that dave develops with one of his black classmates. it's a coming of awareness story about this kid realizing what a whiteness means in america. so much of what happens in the book is dave and his black friend marlin going through the world, having similar experiences, but dave seeing society treat marlin very differently than it treats him. >> you chose to write this book in kind of a language. >> i really cared about having

an authentic voice and i cared about it feeling authentically 12 years old. but i also wanted to write a good book and say profound thinthin things if i could. a lot of what's in the book is save saying something realistic for a 12-year-old who loves hip hop in the early '90s but has a deeper meaning. one of the books i was inspired by was huck finn. i was sort of perplexed for the first 20 pages at the vernacular voice, but i got inspired by that book. >> can i take you back to pro s politics for a moment. the landscape must look like completely foreign territory to you now, but what do you think the next political election is going to look like in -- not

just twitter but essentially as internet warfare? >> the big sort of killer app in digital politics for so long was e-mail. that's what we focused on in the obama campaign. really sophisticated e-mail targeting, testing, analytics, to try to raise money. the trump campaign really has no e-mail strategy at all. i was on their e-mail list. just sort of like -- it felt like e-mail forwards from aol back in 1995. the whole time i was thinking when is he going to get an internet strategy. it turned out that just tweeting inflammatory stuff, rallying up the base really did work. i think the big thing that any candidate, democrat or republican, has to think about on the digital side is fake news. the way i look at it is unless

you have a message that is more viral than fake news, you're going to get beaten down by fake news. you have to have an exciting -- that's why bernie sanders came out of nowhere to get millions and millions of votes because he had a viral message that cut through a lot of the fake news. i would say the landscape in many ways is actually the same as it always was, which is that message that's always going to be the most important thing. it's just a lot harder to break through now that in addition to having an opponent, you also have russian bots that you have to defeat online as well. >> the book is "green." i highly recommend it. it is on sale now. thank you so much for coming in tonight. when we return, what to watch for.

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welcome back. before we go, let's talk about what all of our great reporters are watching in the week ahead. >> i want to see what the next week brings with the mueller investigation, in particular whether we learn anything more about what role, if any, jared kushner, the president's son-in-law is playing in this whole russia saga. >> right. do we think he's still going to have his job by the end of the week? >> a week is a long time in trump world. >> as we learned tonight on the show. >> tuesday is election day in texas. there are some trends on the

ground there that are very disturbing for republicans. early voting among registered democrats is up 60 since 2014. this time around democratic early voting up almost 100,000 over republicans. >> 105%. >> as a matter of fact, i was talking with a member of ted cruz's team. he, of course, has a couple of republican primary opponents on tuesday. he's not expected to lose, but his team looking at these numbers they're getting very anxious about what's going to happen in november. >> i'm looking for what the body language is like at president trump's meeting tomorrow with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who's facing four major potentially career-ending investigations at home. he's here in no small measure to try to get away from that and to show his voters at home that he's got a powerful relationship with the united states. but how closely will trump

embrace him. >> we will see. i am watching this week we have a little noticed bill in congress that will actually make major changes to our finance systems potentially. it's something that's gone as we've talked about under the radar because of everything else that's going on. i also want to say thank you to kirsten's dog xena watching our show tonight. that is our dog watching "kasie dc" tonight. that does it for us tonight on "kasie dc." we will be back with you next week from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. eastern. for now, good night from washington. this has been a wild week of news, particularly from our nation's capital. you can go snow blind trying to look at any given piece of what's been happening inside the beltway and swirling around the white house these past few dayd. while we are following the chaos at the white house and t