you're talking about is the importance of having a democratic party that stands for something. a democratic party that isn't just willing to take on a fight when it comes to it, a democratic party that picks fights. a democratic party that makes people across this country say, i want to get out there and vote. that's what i want to see. >> senator elizabeth warren, thank you for join being us tonight. >> thank you. >> the rachel maddow show begins with ari melber. i saw you went down to the bar between your shows. you were just hanging out. >> we're just floating. thank you, chris, and thanks to you at home for joining us. rachel does have the night off. we have a big show because several breaking stories tonight. actual change on gun control, thanks to that new student

movement around the country. news tonight, special counsel mueller gathering evidence about that meeting. and the breaking news right now on the mueller probe into russian election interference is new clues as to where they are head. the special counsel probe did begin questioning whether president trump obstructed justice since he allegedly pressed his own fbi director to back off. he asked him to famously drop allegations again allegatio allegations against flynn and then fired comey. we now this animated the probe to the start. they occupied mueller's focus, so that makes this breaking "times" story so troubling for the white house. trump spoke to witnesses about patters th matters they discussed with special counsel. mueller has learned of two conversation in recent months in

which trump asked witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to three people pam wifamiliar wit encounters, this involves the efforts to fire mueller himself. where the two crucial tracks in the story. first, why this president would be talking to witnesses in the mueller probe, and why he thinks that's a good idea. now, is it because the president just doesn't care about the advice from his own attorneys not to do this kind of thing? does he think there's no risk? he can outsmart one more problem in does he think the risk is real, but it's somehow worth it? or is this, hike so like some o stories something smaller, a lack of impulse control. talking to witness in had this case is dumb. it's inappropriate. that talking is not a crime, it would be asking witnesses to lie for you, that's what richard nixon did. take this brand-new reaction

tonight. moments after the story broke from a high-branching doj official known from his measured analysis, neil cal chel. >> it looks so bad, and basically, you've got donald trump acting like a two-bit criminal here and saying to witnesses like priebus, hey, what did you say? were you nice to my and e and s. that is terrible. i represented bin laden's driver. bin laden driver acted with far more integrity in every stage of the investigation than donald trump has so far. and this is just the published report that we know. >> worse than bin laden's driver. that is the witness piece. legally, though, the second track could actually be worse for trump. and it builds on answ incident e

"times" broke. that he tried to get the special counsel investigate being him fired and that his white house counsel threatened to quit which created the prospect of a saturday night massacre, and president trump backed off because counsel dan mcgahn threatened to resign. mueller learned about it in recent months as his investigators questioned about whether the president obstructed justice. in this new reporting tonight, the "times" says not only with mueller being told about the president's order to fire him, we know some of that. it also says something important. that mueller knew exactly what was happening inside the white house after this january story appeared. look at this. the president told an aide that the white house counsel, don

mcgum mcgannen should issue a statement denying the times. and later they had to remind the president that he had indeed asked mcgaun to see that mr. mueller was dismissed. hold up. quote. had to remind the president. those are five ominous words for donald trump tonight. they suggest that mcgaun had to resist trump's version of events, this false account where donald trump denies trying to get mueller fired. if he thinks that he would lie to mueller, that would be a kind of statement to a witness that could be the element of a crime, which lawyer don mcgahn knows. so those are ominous words.

now. the fact that we know that they are in the "new york times," those words, is even more critical, because it suggests someone or someone close to mcgahn or he himself wants to be on the record in public tonight about this little memory game where we all remember the president tried to get his investigator fired while under investigation for obstructing justice. and if this is what is leaking out from don mcgahn, what else is he telling mueller in private. joining me is michael schmitt. thank you for joining me. what can you say about your understanding of why this is coming out now and the kind of legal pairle it might pose for anyone at the white house? >> this incident, these incidents were things that concerned folks when they learned about it, people that

were chose lose to the investig. and they believed mueller needed to know about it because there was a perception that this could be some kind of witness tampering. it's not that they thought in and of itself that it was witness tampering, but it gave off this view, this look that if mueller had found out about it and it had not been disclosed, it would be problematic, and it would raise questions of obstruction or many different matters. had the lawyers pushed ahead and this information got, got to mueller. >> is it fair to boil down what you're saying to the idea that donald trump's behavior here was so reckless or legally dangerous that people on his own legal team were sympathetic to those people, felt a duty to self-report this to the special counsel? >> one of the central, most basic things in investigations is that those under investigation should not try and talk to witnesses, just because it just get nooses into a very,

difficult area. there are lawyers that can talk to other lawyers about it. the other thing is they should not talk to law enforcement people about it. and the president had such a bad consequence come out of the time he did this last february, when comey says he asked him one on one to end the flynn investigation. when that came out, it led to mu mueller being appointed and has put this dark cloud over the president e president, so for the president, evens a the investigation is intensifying, he's engaging about matters that he knew had come up in front of mueller. >> your piece is significant. and your headline is arresting. and i don't want to get into copy editing or headline. but the firing of mueller part of this seems bigger than the witness part, because your paper and you and other reporters have

documented how basically, i'm looking at the timeline that there was the alleged attempt to fire mueller in june 2017 as you reported. then you have don mcgahn speaking in november. and then the january report of the effort to fire mueller. if donald trump was, as you report tonight, trying to get don mcgahn to publicly lie about the firing of mueller, isn't that a legal problem as well? >> i guess it could be. i think that the president was very upset with the report, simply just the fact that this was out there. and he thought it was wrong. and basically went to rob porter at the time and said, look, got to get a statement out there from mcgahn. and if he doesn't want to do this, get rid of him. the president was very and tatsed about it and pushed for it and eventually had a

confrontation with mcgahn about it and mcgahn had to say to him, look, this is what happened. and mcgah nsaid n said he had t other officials about it. >> any context about why he would be telling that to other officials but not the president? >> what happened in june was the president had told mcgahn to call rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who is overseeing mueller, tell him that mueller had these series of conflicts and had to go. the president pushed mcgahn to do this over the series of a few days and eventually, mcgahn got fed up. he knew this was something he didn't want to do. and he told the folks around him he was going to quit. around that time, the president backed down and stopped pushing

him to call rosenstein and he stayed on. >> mike at schmidt with the "new york times," thank you. this reporting has two through lines. what we're learning about the probe itself and this likelihood that don mcgahn will continue to provide information that's adverse to his boss, donald trump. for more on that wrinkle in this story i turn to a former prosecutor from alabama. >> thank for having me. >> when we know that don mcgahn has to play more than one role, he has the duty to the commander in chief and give him advice in had that role, but also has a

legal duty. what do you see in this story that do don mcgahn is likely to provide to mueller? >> in response to questions that are posed to him, he must be truthful, like anyone else, he testifies in front of a grand jury. but that prohibition against not being fully truthful means a little bit more to lawyer whose are officers of the court. so mcgahn obviously has a lot of insight into his conversations with the president, and as we've learned tonight from this story, the president is prone to talk to witnesses. something his lawyers have undoubtedly advised him against doing. where this could become a crime, there's a narrow species of obstruction, witness tampering, it has its own statute. 18 u.s. code 1512. and it makes it among other things illegal for someone to try to corruptly persuade, to

intentionally influence a witness, to give false testimony in a court proceeding. so we're not quite there on this story. we're talking about mcgahn being asked through a third person to go out and refute a newspaper story. but mueller lo wawill want to p down on this and see if there were more further, difficult conversations that the president had with people. >> if the attempted firing of bob mueller becomes a part of an element of the obstruction case against anyone at the white house, can don mcgahn then be called as a witness against people at the white house for that issue? >> mcgahn works in the white house. he is a fact witness to what he observes. he is not the president's lawyer. there is no attorney-client privilege there. the most realistic privilege he could assert, and we've seen no evidence this is the case, would

be a fifth amendment to avoid testifying in a way that would incriminate himself personally of a crime. we've seen no evidence that he has that problem and every indication that he's cooperated with mueller. >> you are here as a former federal prosecutor and legal expert. i don't want to try to conscript you into media analysis, but i think you know as a long-time participant in legal cases that involve the press that something rachel has said on this program and that we've reported is, there are a slough of stories that seem to continuously cast don mcgahn as this hero of the republic who's saving everyone from themselves. can you shed any light on the potential sourcing for that in. >> so, i'm a willing conscript into that kind of a venture. often in a case ilike this, in public corruption case, you will have a person who is potentially a subject or someone of interest

to investigators, and they will run a little bit of a pr campaign to try to enhance their image, at least in the public's eye. there's some reason to believe that this is perhaps going on to some extent with mr. mcgahn. it these stories do surface with regularity and seem to be the type of stories that would be difficult to source without cooperation from mr. mcgahn or someone close to him. >> i think i understand what you're saying. joyce vance, as always, we appreciate your expertise. ? thank y . >> thank you for having me. >> i want to turn to a close student of this story and its and t yants seed thing. >> it conjures richard nixon in '73 and '74. he was accused by the house impeachment inquiry of witness tampering, which was one of the counts against him. his aide said it was

pathological. nixon was a lawyer. he knew to get involved in this was against his own self-interest, but he couldn't help himself. he always had to get involved in this. bill clinton, when he was pursued in 1998. his special prosecutor, kenneth starr accused him of witness tampering with betty curry, his secretary, who starr charged had tried to unduly influence, clinton said that wasn't true. she said it wasn't true either. another thing, ari is i think you would agree, as an imminent lawyer, presidents, those who are deft or good clients, ronald reagan was an excellent client. he took his lawyers' advice, he got out of the scandal. vice president george bush was in danger of being dragged into iran-contra. he was advised deftally by a man

who kept bush out of that scandal. do you know where donald trump is eating dinner snonts. >> no, i don't. >> he is eating dinner at the home of boyden gray, the same guy in georgetown who happened to be having a dinner for republican donors. it's said to be about the first time donald trump has gone to a private home in washington for dinner sdplchl that might be some fascinating history in the making. when you mention nixon. people remember john dean and the thing among his inner circle, if they were pushing him into the criminal conspiracy, that would help him for self-interests, not rat on them. >> absolutely. >> and, as you know, i sometimes turn to music and lyrics to understand things. jay z is quite knowledgeable on

criminal procedure, and he famously said plead the fifth when it comes to the fam. en jo-- john dean did speak. do you see anything about the lawyers and what they say. >> i do. and jay z andry bo i are both chicagoans. thank you for mentioning him tonight. one way that he knew that he, nixon, was trying to make him the fall guy is he'd go into the oval office, and nixon would say, well, of course i did not try to do such and such. order a break in into the brookings institution or something like that, and dean knew nixon was trying to get him to be a witness. what dean did not know was that

nixon was making secret tape recordings of these conversations but he quickly began to suspect that he was. >> and those tapes ultimately had quite the shelf life. thank you. >> thank you, ari. >> that is one of the big, breaking stories tonight in the probe. as we abowere getting ready to to air another story broke. that is next. are defined by the things we share. and the ones we love. who never stop wondering what we'll do or where we'll go next. we the people who are better together than we are alone... are unstoppable. welcome to the entirely new expedition. oscar mayer deli fresh ham has no added nitrates, nitrites or artificial preservatives. now deli fresh flavor is for everyone. like those who like... sweet.

those who prefer heat. and those who just love meat. oscar mayer deli fresh. a fresh way to deli. my secret visitors. hallucinations and delusions. the unknown parts of living with parkinson's. what plots they unfold, but only in my mind. over 50% of people with parkinson's will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. if your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinson's specialist. there are treatment options that can help. my visitors should be the ones i want to see. need a change of scenery? the kayak price forecast tool tells you whether to wait or book your flight now. so you can be confident you're getting the best price. giddyup! kayak. search one and done. i'm the one clocking in when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically

adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. i can also help with this. does your bed do that? oh. i don't actually talk. though i'm smart enough to. i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store. but having his parents over was enlightening. ♪ you don't like my lasagna? no, it's good. -hmm. -oh. huh. [ both laugh ] here, blow. blow on it. you see it, right? is there a draft in here? i'm telling you, it's so easy to get home insurance on progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents. but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto.

there is yet another story breaking tonight about the special counsel investigation. this is ynew details on what mueller is investigating in the seychelles islands from during the transition period. tonight the washington post is reporting that new evidence between a meeting between eric prince, a fairly controversial trump campaign donor and the brother of betsy devos and a russian official close to putin were meeting just days before trump's inauguration. the report is that this was in fact part of an effort to establish, wait for it, a secret back channel with russia. reading from this new report,

special counsel bob mueller gathering evidence that a secret meeting in the seychelles was an effort to establish this quote, back channel between the incoming administration and the kremlin. a witness cooperating with mueller told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the trump transition could meet with an emissary from moscow to discuss future relations between the countries, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. that cooperating witness is george nader, the lebanese american businessman who says he helped to organize the meeting. this new information is important, because it would seem to contradict this testimony that prince gave to house investigators last year, and that's like an oath proceeding. you have a legal obligation. prince saying he attended the meeting in the seychelles

islands as a private business person. he said the encounter with that russian fund manager was an unplanned, casual discussion over a drink. i turn now to sari horowitz who is one of the reporters who broke this story tonight. thank you for joining me. some of this topic has been out there, this idea that mr. nader was cooperating with bob mueller and that there was this set of meetings. what is new in your story, so viewers understand, so we understand that advances this? >> hi, glad to be on your show tonight. that's a good question. some of this has been out there. what's new is that we now have information that we're reporting tonight that contradicts one of the participants who was at this meeting, erik prince, who testified on capitol hill, who told lawmakers back in november, that, as you said, this was just

not an official, planned meeting. it was an unplanned, and an unimportant encounter that came about just by chance because he happened to be in a luxury hotel in the indian island nations with those from the united emirates. there's a secret meeting in the seychelles in january of 2017 before the inauguration of president trump. at the meeting is erik prince how mentioned, who is representing the trump transition team, a russian official close to russian president vladimir putin. officials from the united area emirates and a lebanese american businessman named george nader. what we're hearing, what we're reporting, this is an effort to establish this back channel. what erik prince told haw makers in november is again, he coincidently ran into people at this hotel. he went there as a private businessman, not as an emissary from the trump transition team

and was discussing possible business deals with uae officials, and he's there, and they unexpectedly suggest he visit the hotel bar and meet the russian official who's very close to putin. he says he told officials he talked to the russian official for about 30 minutes or about the time it took him to drink a beer, nothing substantive in terms of the trump transition team at all. >> why would they want a secret back channel to the kremlin? >> well, this was, this is in the transition period. and this is is duriduring the tn the trump administration is believed to be wanting to talk to russian officials. we don't know what went on in this meeting specifically. we don't know if the whole issue of sanctions was discussed. now this was two weeks after the very controversial phone call between flynn, the national security adviser and kislyak.

>> i want to push you a little bit. and i appreciate your careful, measured approach. i guess what i'm getting at is bob mueller's investigating russian collusion and quid pro quo. now we're learning about an additional, potential effort to have a secret back channel to the kremlin. they could obviously use, the transition government mechanisms at their disposal. is the back channel proving there was an attempt to do something off the books secret because it was maybe bad. >> yes, we know he's investigating the circumstances of this meeting. and more broadly, he is examining, investigating apparent efforts by the trump transition team to create this back channel for secret talks, and you ask why would they need this. well, mueller, the seychelles meeting is of great interest to mueller's team because it's also investigating whether any foreign money or foreign

assistance fueled the trump campaign. and he's looking at how trump officials during the transition and the early days of the administration communicated with foreign officials. and this was seen to be one of the first meetings where that was done. where there's communication, it's a back channel. >> right. and this, this fact of mueller looking at it gives a greater context to the period of time that goes well beyond the campaign to whether the instrumentalities of the government were abused, something that flynn pleaded guilty b a guilty about. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me on, ari. >> still ahead, after months of pressure, the white house now responding to an adult film star. our break down still ahead. to . with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag.

two united club passes. priority boarding. and earn fifty thousand bonus miles after you spend three thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months from account opening plus, zero-dollar intro annual fee for the first year, then ninety-five dollars. learn more at theexplorercard.com breathe freely fast wmy congestion's gone. i can breathe again! i can breathe again! vicks sinex... breathe on.

you or joints. something for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. and i am a senior public safety my namspecialist for pg&e. my job is to help educate our first responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. i live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. once i moved here i didn't want to live anywhere else. i love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other people's lives. together, we're building a better california.

stormy daniels is suing the president. she was barely mentioned during the 2016 campaign. the former adult film actress spoke about her alleged relationship with trump. but they said it was absolutely false that trump ever had a relationship with stormy daniels. then this january news leaked that daniels received $130,000 right before the election. part of an agreement precluding her from discussing the alleged relationship with trump back in 2006. that journalism has now been

forced to make some changes. it has forced a white house spokesperson to get a little more vague. >> is the president aware that his lawyer paid that kind of money to a porn tar to bstar to silence? does very a clue about that? >> that has been asked and answered in the past. >> do we know -- >> i -- >> will you ask about that? >> i will get back to you. >> does the president talk about this at any time during the campaign or thereafter in? not that i'm aware of. >> and there's no reason she would be. this is hush money. the first rule of hush money is you don't talk about hush money. but even in the white house, some dodges don't last. today sanders effectively shifted. >> did the president approve of the payment that was made in

october of 2016 by his long-time lawyer. >> the president has addressed these directly, and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true. this case has already been won in arbitration, and anything beyond that, i would refer you to the president's outside counsel. >> you said thayer's already arbitration that's been won in by whom and when in. >> by the president's personal attorneys, and for detail, i would refer you to them. >> what can you share with us? >> i can share that the arbitration was won in the president's favor. >> you said what now what else can you tell us? that was a moment. if trump had no relationship with stormy daniels, and his lawyer made a payment on his own authority, what else would be arbitrated? this new information, obviously, raises more questions than it answer, and it's coming out because of this new lawsuit from

stephanie clifford, aka stormy daniels versus the president noting that a non-disclosure agreement not to disclose that an intermat relationship with trump exists but shouldn't be value, because it's missing a signature, trump's signature. the missing signature isn't the strongest reason to object to a contract. it also alleges that michael cone was back at it again pushing a quote, bogus arbitration proceeding against daniels on tuesday, which she views as attempts to intimidate her into silence and shut her up. so cohen admits he facilitated this payment to her. and he still won't answer directly whether he was reimbursed. and his payment itself got formally flagged as suspicious. that was by both the sending and receiving bank, including a flag that came in september, that's

almost a year after the election-eve payment, which is an abnormal delay for a suspicious activity report. this all suggests something going on, more than the payment itself. more than that original sum that triggered investigative concern. and we don't know exactly what else that would be. we can also report tonight that cohen has added. trump's lawyer tried to silence adult star daniels. and a private arbitration proceeding warning she faces penalties if she publicly discusses a relationship with the president. cohen obtained this from a secret arbiter, barring her from disclosing confidential information relating to the nda from october 2016. and that move could be the victory sanders was citing today. >> i can share that arbitration

was won in the president's favor, and i would refer you to the president's outside counsel on any details beyond that. >> so, did this whole thing end with a victory in arbitration in or was a ruling on confidential information more narrow or even mortem pray more temporary. michael cohen did not respond with any further details tonight, but this story is much broader than daniels versus trump and whatever history they do or do not share. this is also the story of a president who, despite his denials, evidently does have accusation he wishes to keep private. evidently, is willing to oversee a system that pays to keep them secret, and continues to employ a lawyer, working the case. all of that in contrast to of course remember during the campaign, when trump loudly denied all accusations of sexual misconduct, even pledging to sue his accusers.

>> every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. total fabrication. the events never happened. never. all of these liars will be sued after the election is over. >> all will be sued. you know, pledging to take someone to court can sound tough. makes it sound like you're so convinced of your incense, thno. of those 19 accusers who came forward during the campaign, donald trump has sued zero. none of them. he didn't bring a single case to court in public as he threatened. and yet tonight we learn that his lawyer, michael cohen, did bring an arbitration case against one woman, ms. daniels. the difference between court and arbitration is the difference between night and day.

under the law, court is open. in this kind of arbitration it's secret. if this was a victory, as the white house spokesperson said today, why would you only want to win in secret? you wouldn't accept an incomplete job

from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase. there's so much goodness it makes us feel alive. it illuminates our world and connects us to each other. with transitions® adaptive lenses® you'll live the good light. they block uv rays. plus they help protect from harmful blue light. both indoors... and out. enjoy life more comfortably. enjoy life more richly. live the good light. find an eyecare professional at transitions.com 'sleep number spring clearance event'. the dual adjustability of the sleep number bed

allows each of you to adjust to your ideal level of firmness, comfort and support. your sleep number setting. for your best. sleep. ever. in the morning, you'll discover the amazing effects the bed is having on your sleep quality... your sleepiq score. and snoring? does your bed do that? only at a sleep number store where queen mattresses start at just $899. and, it's the last chance for clearance savings up to $600 on our most popular beds. ends soon. visit sleepnumber.com for a store near you.

. tomorrow, the house intelligence committee will hear testimony from the former campaign manager for donald trump. you see him there, corey lewandowski. this is his second appearance before the committee. he did refuse to answer many questions about his interactions with president trump during the interview in january. it's unclear what he will do. will he answer those questions this time? one thing that is clear, republicans want to wrap it up. they plan to bring this whole probe to an end in the near future, the "washington post" reporting lewandowski is the last witness currently scheduled for an interview, according to multiple sources.

this is despite the fact on the democratic side they want dozens of more witnesses, including witnesses that are blocked from testifying by fellow republicans on the panel. in fact, if there is an appetite on the gop side it is for something new entirely. a new special counsel. the latest is trey gowdy. he says we need a special counsel to probe, yes, the fbi and doj themselves, regarding the surveillance warrants that monitored at a minimum former trump adviser carter page. now gowdy is joining two other senators, chuck grassley and lindsey graham plus 30 house republicans calling for this special counsel and the idea would be to investigate everything from the alleged surveillance abuses to uranium one and the old favorite, the clinton e-mail probe. it's not clear what the legal basis would be to appoint a

special council for those things. the house probe into election interference is of course something they want to end e so an investigation that republicans have basically worked to stymie in various, very public ways from the start is now on the verge of ending for good with what would be as rachel has mentioned previously, partisan reports coming out when it's all done. it would be the only true bipartisan probe in town. this demise of the house probe comes even as today this new information comes out about outgoing communication director hope hicks that he told the committee her opwn e-mails had been hacked. it was passed to a potential target, trump lawyer michael cohen, and as the "washington post" breaks the other news that one of the committee's witnesses

may have misled them. may have criminally lied about a participation in the meeting in the seychelles island as part of an attempt to establish a back channel to the kremlin. it is a lot to unpack, but we have the right guests. congressman eric swalwell. thanks for being here >> thanks. >> you give us a front row seat to what sari horowitz was reporting earlier. this meeting was casual, not a back channel. her "washington post" report says it was a back channel and effectively that means he's accused of lying to your committee. your response in. >> --? it's all the more reason that our investigation should continue. we're on the eve of what is our last witness that we know about in this russia investigation.

the best thing we can do to defend our ballot box and make sure this doesn't happen again is make sure we understand who in the united states worked with the russians. adam schiff and i both asked mr. prince a number of times who did you meet with over there? did you ever try to establish a russia back channel? did you ever try to meet with uae and russians while you were in the seychelles to help the trump campaign. and he denied it at every step, it he met with george maider na lied. but i'm afraid we're sighieeing attack on our own police, and that's not how you respond to what russia did. we should complete our own investigation, impose sanctions already passed in congress against russia and make lusure this doesn't happen again. >> do you think erik prince lied to you. >> i want to find out. you subpoena logs and hopefully

bring in george nader as well. but erik prince had every opportunity in the questioning that occurred to tell us if he met with anyone other than this russian banker and uae officials and he never discussed that. this goes to the larger issue. these witnesses come in at a take them at their word investigation. they sit in a seat. we ask them questions. and republicans say that's great. we're not going to check to see if any of this checks out, we're not going to subpoena any third-party records. these in the trump team are not worthy of being taken at their word. >> when you see those on your committee saying it's time to wrap it up, what do you say that many key witnesses have appeared before the committee and that this has been going on for a long time. what do you say to that argument? >> i say if you think we are safer today than 2016 then let's

wrap it up. if you believe mike pompeo and rex tillerson and mike rogers at the nsa that the russians are still in our system and still seek to attack us, then we should fully understand what they did, who they worked w whether our response was adequate and tell the american people we're not going to let this happen. >> i want to ask you about the special counsel. my job is to try to look as fairly as possible. but there needs to be some underlying crime that they're looking at. are you familiar with what the basis is? for that? >> the basis is to distract, ari. the fisa issue has been resolved. i think most legal experts have concluded that the surveillance that kuoccurred on carter page s more than warranted. this is just an effort to undermine bob mueller. that's too bad. because russia attacked us. they're attacking our own

police, this, ari would be after pearl harbor if you decided the most important thing we should be doing is to go after the air traffic controllers. that's the level of incompetence they are demonstrating by showing this focus on a specialn a special counsel. >> eric swalwell thank you for your time. >> my pleasure. still ahead tonight, legislative change driven by students at the florida student that was three weeks ago today. that's next. not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling. ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting.com today... for your chance to win a free treatment.

we know that when you're >> tspending time with thelass grandkids... ♪ music >> tech: ...every minute counts. and you don't have time for a cracked windshield. that's why at safelite, we'll show you exactly when we'll be there. with a replacement you can trust. all done sir. >> grandpa: looks great! >> tech: thanks for choosing safelite. >> grandpa: thank you! >> child: bye! >> tech: bye! saving you time... so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪

you know what's not awesome? gig-speed internet. when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, 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.

show me what democracy looks like. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> show me what democracy looks like. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> students staging a sit in outside senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's office today. they were calling for what they say is common sense gun control. this is three weeks to the day after the parkland shooting in florida. a few weethey were asked to dis and when they didn't they were ace rested. in the three weeks since the shooting at marjory stoneman douglas, there has been a drum beat of walk outs and sit ins and still more to come. this is some energy we've seen this time that for three weeks

now has been a sledge hammer chipping away at an issue that often feels like it can't be change. look in the past three weeks real progress across the nation from banning bump stock to the so-called red flag bills happening from oregon to the utah to alabama. there is this nation-wide domino affect. the latest domino florida. today they passed the marjory stoneman douglas high school public safety act. it raise it is age for buying to 21. adds a three-day waiting period on all firearm sales. it bans bump stocks. this proposed law would add an idea that president trump has created creating a school marshal program to arm some teachers. but if it becomes law it will be

florida's first gun control measure in 22 years. this is a state that usually goes in the other direction, pro-nra, the stand your ground laws. they're favored by the nra which was fighting with the people to vote no on this. families of the victims of the shooting had their own call to action. they said we must be the last families to suffer the loss of a loved one to the a shooting at school. the moment to pass the bill is now. today they did 57-60. with bipartisan it is headed to the governor's desk. so if it becomes law, this energy from the last three weeks clearly played a roll. here's florida's representative today. >> i want to thank the kids who protested from parkland had the gal to come over here and protest and the kids who helped them, who proteed with them. i would like to see you go on

and protest for your rights and let your voices be heard. >> a shout out from a republican state legislature. those voices could be heard today protesting another republican, mitch mcconnell and taking student activism to a new level. >> the nra has got to go. >> the nra has got to go. ♪ ♪ (vo) you can pass down a subaru forester. but you get to keep the memories. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. (avo) get 0% apr financing on all new 2018 subaru forester models. now through april 2nd.

don't we need that cable box to watch tv? nope. don't we need to run? nope. it just explodes in a high pitched 'yeahhh.' yeahhh! try directv now for $10 a month for 3 months. no satellite needed. that does it for us.

rachel will be back tomorrow. you can find me at 6:00 p.m. eastern on my show "the beat" with ari melber. something important right now. stormy daniels's attorney is about to appear live on "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." which sounds interesting. good evening. >> good evening. you have to text me your questions for stormy daniels's lawyer. >> i'll do it. >> i have some but i need more right now. >> i'll do that right now. >> thank you. we'll get to that. but first the big question of the night is, has the president been trying to obstruct justice by interfering with witnesses in the special prosecutor's investigation. president trump, we all remember, was turned down by all of the best washington lawyers when he went shopping for a criminal defense lawyer to deal with the special prosecutor's investigation and congressional