note, i mistakenly said that monica lewinsky's dress was in the smithsonian and it never did acquire the dress and the whereabouts of that dress are unknown. my thanks to nick and al and jason johnson. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> hi, nicole. >> happy friday. >> i'm trying to finish tuesday, wednesday and thursday and friday is here. we'll figure that out. >> have a good show. >> if it is friday it is the end of the week that was quintessentially trump. tonight the president and dictator, will north korea talks materialize. and would they be worth the risk? >> i think it is very risky. it risks the credibility and the united states. >> and a stormy week with how the president's personal attorney silenced sam nunberg.

>> i'and this is "mtp daily" an it starts right now. ♪ ♪ goo evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington and welcome to "mtp daily." is there anything more trump than the agreement to meet with kim jong-un. and how it made the president's top forn adviser like sidelined on a top matter of foreign policy or other advisers totally caught off guard as well. is there anything more trump than this i alone can fix it tude the president has about something to complicated or the white house today seemingly started to lay the groundwork to walk it back. >> we are making no concessions and we are not going to move forward until we see concrete and verified actions taking place by north korea. >> is there a possibility that these talks with north korea

with kim jong-un may not happen? >> look, they've got to follow through on the promises that they made and we want to see concrete and verifiable action on that front. >> that was at one time this afternoon. but is there anything more trump than how a white house official then backtracked the walk back telling the "wall street journal" the invitation to meet with kim jong-un, was, quote, extended and that stands. and could there be anything more trump. that depends. is there anything more trump than the way he rolled out yesterday's announcement on tariffs and how it made his top economic adviser look after looking side lines on a top matter of economic policy or how his white house staff was caught off guard or this i alone can fix it attitude the president has about something to complicated. you see a pattern here. could there be anything more trump than all of that. that depends. is there anything more trump than the stormy daniels, an

extramarital affair with a porn staff and $130,000 in mush money and a temporary restraining order. and is there anything more trump thap the meltdown of his former adviser sam nunberg who called trump a [ inaudible ]. well that depends. is there anything more trump than all of these stories happening in the same week. folks, this is the trump presidency. this is normal. for trump. a monday meltdown and tuesday resignation and a spat on wednesday and trade war on thursday and agreement to meet with kim jong-un on friday. and after a week like this, you might ask, this is the trump presidency. but after a week like this, you have got your answer. and you might ask what does trump think of such a trumpy week. well after a week like this, you know that answer. he loved it. why? it is all about trump. joined by the msnbc contributor and ambassador to south korea,

ambassador hill. welcome, sir. >> thank you very much. >> i want to get your first reaction when you heard that the president accepted this no strings invitation. your first reaction? >> well, i spent four years talking to the north koreans and i never had a day like that. it is quite extraordinary. i first of all thought it was of course a mistake. but sure enough, he did that. and of course as you've alluded to, he did it without the benefit of any advisers, et cetera. so here we are, i guess two months out from the meeting, i'm not really sure who the team is, as you know joe yun is gone, the person in charge of the negotiations. we don't have an ambassador in south korea. so they have a lot of work to do otherwise this is just going to be -- as president trump predicted when he was campaigning, sort of a hamburger summit for no apparent reason.

so -- a lot of work to do here. >> it is. what is interesting is how it seems as if foreign policy folks from either side of the aisle have some skepticism. i want to play susan rice today with andrea mitchell and rex tillerson yesterday. take a listen to both. >> there is a real risk, i'm afraid, that if we dash into this without proper preparation, the president himself tries to conduct a substantive negotiation without the benefit of experts, that we could well fail and in the contempt of failure, i think the risk of conflict increases. >> we're a long ways from negotiations. i think it is -- we just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it. i don't know yet until we are able to meet ourselves, face-to-face, with representatives of north korea whether the conditions are right

to even begin thinking about negotiations. >> ambassador hill, i played them both back to back because i was struck by the obama national security adviser and the secretary of state and i couldn't tell the difference and they were speaking from the same song sheet. >> well i think what is going on with susan rice is explaining we didn't do anything for eight years because we never felt there was an opportunity. frankly they were very worried about getting into this because the republicans would have just gone after them like you wouldn't believe. so they had a reason to kind of hold back and i think -- >> let me stop you there. what would the reaction have been of -- what would tom cotton say if barack obama said he was meeting -- >> i cannot say on tv. >> but what i thought what is interesting is we're not negotiating anything. >> well it was interesting, it

was exactly what he said yesterday before he evidently knew that this was going to happen. he said, we're a long way from negotiation and low and behold we are about 20 minutes away and so the next day he said, well we're a long way from negotiation. the point is well taken. but the problem with north korea is there are never any good options. it is not like we're saying we want to talk instead of doing x and x is terrific. they've been talking about the bloody nose scenario which frankly speaking to anyone who understands the situation there, makes absolutely no sense. so i'm not surprised that they look at this. the issue is the south koreans have come to them and said, look, we think there is an opening. i think out of respect to our allies, south korea, the whole point of being on the korean pennsylvania, we should say we're going to have a very close look at it. but i think we're -- as we say in colorado, a little out in front of their skis there. >> i want to emphasize the south korea point because i know we keep looking at this through the

lens of either kim jong-un or donald trump. but this is a different administration in south korea. they have a different -- previous administrations in south korea would have not even brought a letter like that to an american because they wouldn't have wanted -- they wouldn't see it in their interest to see this happen. this is a different south korea right now, correct? >> this is. and i must say, president moon has been extremely good about handling this. what i like about him is he said the same thing to different people and so he doesn't put an extra spin on the ball here. so he said i think -- a very experienced national security adviser and said this is what we heard from them. and i think it is fair enough and secretary tillerson is right we need to talk to the north koreans and test this and frankly need to get together with the japanese who are very nervous about all of this and, by the way, even the chinese are a little -- >> where are the chinese?

>> well the chinese have done a lot in terms of sanctions. they get some credit for that. but i'm not sure they're pleased with the idea the north koreas have pretended that china doesn't exist and a big part of this is -- the north koreans saying to the americans, we have a deal with you and we don't need to deal with the chinese. and i think this is sort of kim jong-un's great contribution here because he wants to reject what his father did, which was to have a close relationship with the chinese even perp walking his uncle out of a party meeting and having him killed when he was an influence in the north korean government. >> and president trump said chris hill, you are putting this together. where would this take place? where would you physically have the summit. >> i wa-- i would want to know what does he want to accomplish. if we are going to have denuclearization we need to have

20 steps and do things for the north korea yans and assistanced i would like to lay that out and say are be going to try to make the summit part of the process toward denuclearization or do you want to just kind of say -- kind of explore with kim whether he's really interested in -- in denuclearization so those things have to be handled. as to the venue, when i was in bosnia, let's bring this merry crowd like mel oshovich saying can't you do find someplace with barbed wire so we ended at the air base so if it is in the u.s., something like that and my advice is don't travel to north korea, there is a travel advisory there for very good reason. >> i think it is going to be in alaska. that is about half way and it would be isolated.

not barbed wire but frozen tundra. >> yeah. something like that that would make sense, maybe even on a ship somewhere. >> the president would like doing it on a ship. >> it's been done before. >> i have a feeling we will be talking quite a bit in the next couple of months on this exact topic. thank you. let me bring in tonight's panel. reporter carol lee, the president of the latino partnership for conservative principles alfonso aguilar and editor ruth markus. first i'm going quickly in the weeds on north korea. and then pull back on the big sort of week that was. carol, we're seeing -- we thought they were trying to walk him back and then suddenly he's told to clarify. this is -- i guess this is the second day in a row that sarah sanders got ahead of the president. >> this is what you get when you move this fast on something like this and you have people in place who aren't necessarily fully familiar with the issues and what each individual word

means. and so, yeah, now they are walking back and saying -- >> walking back -- let's get our walk back together. >> the two walk backs. >> a lot of steps. you need your fitbit. >> moon walking. >> fitbit and you could get extra steps. >> so they are saying we are meeting and there what sarah sanders said the benchmarks to be taken that they are going back to what the south koreans and kim jong-un said he would do which is commit to denuclearization and not be okay with the joint exercise between the u.s. and south korea and otherwise accept there will still be sanctions and not test anything. >> what about alfonso, any of this -- i sort of find it surprising that republicans are surprised any more. i say that because donald trump campaigned saying, nobody else has figured out this korea problem so i'll try different things and he's doing it. >> and i think many are

surprised and encouraged and on both sides we've seen positive comments. regardless of the communication issues and with this administration we'll always have them. >> it is the normal. >> and i think it is a validation of trump putting pressure on north korea and leverage to -- to see if they change their mind. and the south korean national security visor said this is happening because of the leadership of trump and being tough on north korea. >> and the south koreans wants this and we have underplayed this. they are pushing this. >> i would like to take issue with the validation point. >> but i think the south koreans are pushing. >> sure. but -- president trump agreed if it happens to give north korea some -- something that north korea has long sought in exchange for what? in exchange for -- after they did conducted a whole bunch of tests that were alarming that they weren't supposed to conduct

after they violated previous agreements so i don't understand the policy you are validating other than if you behave badly we'll sit down and talk to you. >> it is validating that we're still talking about denuclearization. the obama administration had gave up. susan rice wrote a op ed and said we should accept north korea with nuclear weapons so i'm happy this administration is willing to do something out of the box to ensure that north korea stops developing the military nuclear capabilities. >> it is -- either way, whatever you think about it, i think that any -- everyone agrees that whatever has been done in past is not working. and this is high risk and high reward. but wherever anyone comes down on this, republicans or democrats, diplomats, current informer, everyone agrees that it hasn't worked and trying something new while -- it is a risk. but nothing else has worked. >> has this happen and -- does this happen before the 4th of

july. i know they say. but do you think it happened before the fourth of july. >> i hope it does and i hope it does change the dynamic. >> i am going to say because my job is just disagreeing with you all day today, apparently, is i'm really hoping it doesn't. and the reason i hope it doesn't is that to prepare adequately for a summit like this takes not weeks but months and it takes a process that actually requires having people in place who can do that process. we don't have right now either the process or the people. so high risk and to have a -- a successful summit requires the preparation for a summit. >> you are -- speaking the days before there was a donald trump. >> i know. >> how long will it take to prepare? with obama it was eight years and nothing happened so let's look at a different -- >> let's put on a summit sounds like lots of fun but it is not the way effective foreign policy

gets effective. >> and the president governed with his gut the same way he managed his company with a gut. he allowed the taf to rein him in but this week he hasn't. there is an emboldened spirit in him with his own staff. >> and depending on the response you will get more of that. if he likes the way this is being received in the media and you'll see more of that. this is -- if you look at how he campaigned, that is what he said he would be. >> this is what he promised. >> this is every single day. >> and we've seen it on disclose pl -- display but we don't know the outcome. i don't feel rosie about the outcome on tariffs and i'm a little anxious about the out come. >> react to lindsey graham's statement. it was interestingly worded. a word of warning to kim

jong-un, the worst possible thing you could do is meet with president trump in person and try to play him. if you do that, it will be the end of you and your regime. he's assuming the president could get played by him the way that is written. that was weirdly insulting. a subtle jab. >> it is a reality. north korea regime has played other american administrations so why wouldn't they try this one. it is a recognition. i think on tariffs, i think that trump was being -- the only issue where he's being consistent throughout his life is trade and tariffs. through the '80s, criticizing nafta and other trade agreements. so he's being consistent. angering republicans and i think democrats are pleased because at most republicans don't like the idea of imposing 25% tariffs on -- a 25% tariff on steel. >> and the president got a gift today. with that jobs report. >> he did. >> sort of like everybody gets unnerved by tariffs. jobs are being created. >> we'll get more into the

trumpy week later. so stick around. up ahead, it is not just a trumpy week but a stormy week. we have a report on the president and the porn actress. you know what's awesome? gig-speed internet.

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sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. . welcome back. today in meet the midterms, president trump is hitting the came trail on what is a very tight special election in pennsylvania's 18th district which is going to disappear after the election. as we've said, it is a risky move for the president to get so involved. a loss in this district that he won by 20 points would be devastating but he may be helping the steel and aluminum tariffs announced this week will carry rick saccone over the finish line with thousands of steel industry jobs but it is unclear how much of an edge he will get because conar lamb expressed support for the new tariffs but there is another surprising reason he gets boost, it is on the issue of north

korea. this gives rick saccone a chance to tout his own diplomatic medals he was a diplomatic ambassador in south korea and he is touting his experience negotiating with the north koreans saying he was the only living american in north korea. only american living in north korea. if he loses on tuesday despite the president's help, republicans in trump country will start getting a little bit nervous. so that is the reason to keep an eye on this race. we'll be back with more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds. nt to go. 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 you wouldn't accept from any one else.

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arrangements for stormy daniels. and the lawyer for stormy daniels spoke to my colleague andrea mitchell. >> i think we are one step closer to showing this was not personal funds that were never reimbursed to mr. cohen. quite honestly. >> do you think it came from michael cohen's personal money for trump organization money or from donald trump? >> we believe that ultimately we're going to be able to trace this back in one form or another to a payment from the trump organization or from the surrogate for mr. trump. >> well joining me now is national security reporter ken delanian. i think there is another report michael cohen put out some statement trying to give -- he told another news organization that it came from a credit line. that he had a home equity line. there is some legal trouble michael cohen could now be finding himself in because of

the -- the origin of the money itself. walk us through this. >> there is so many legal perils for both michael cohen and donald trump in this thing. first of all, there could be tax implications and money laundering implications depending on how the payment was structure and on whose behalf and that is complicated but what is simple -- the ultimate question that could decide how this plays out which is was this payment made basically to cover this up in furtherance of donald trump's presidential election. because if it was, campaign finance law experts tell me it could then be construed as a campaign contribution and it would be illegal if michael cohen made it because you can't give as you know $130,000 in personal money to a campaign. if donald trump was ultimately the source of the funds, he can give as much as he wants to his own campaign, but he would have had to account for it and disclose this as a contribution and that does not appear to happen and it if campaign finances lawyers are saying

there is more than enough for a federal criminal investigation and they look back at the john edwards case, democrat who ran for president in 2008, a wealthy benefactor paid a million dollars to his mistress and the federal government indicted him and he was not convicted but that is the precedent here. >> well he was ultimately not convicted. >> yes. >> that is an important point there. but one other point on the edwards case, the benefactor paid the gift tax. >> that is right. >> so he did pay a gift tax, the late fred barren on that front and john edwards made the argument we are not doing this for the election and poor it up from my poor cancer stricken wife and donald trump would make the same argument in this case. >> and since he's done this before, it wasn't for the campaign, it was for the celebrity in him. very quickly, what is -- what is stormy daniels want? just the opportunity to sell her story? is that what she's looking for here? >> that is the cynical view of

it. clearly she's willing to give back money in order to exercise her free speech rights. that is the more benign view of it. and the other point to make here this is not the first rodeo for michael cohen and payoffs and there are other reporting of situations -- it is one of the jobs that michael cohen had for donald trump over the years and that is very interesting. >> and that is what i want to get to the panel on there. ken, i'll let you go. thank you very much. and we bring back the panel. carol, you are on the mueller beat and i want to get to the mueller angle to michael cohen which is how michael cohen orchestrated the payout that may become of interest to mueller. it has nothing to do with her but may have something to do -- is this how they move money in the trump world. >> that is exactly right. and an investigation like that, you would want to know -- and michael cohen is hugely important in that. because he's so close and

involved in all of the president's dealings. and -- >> and now there is some reporting that he's -- that he had a letter of in tent on a moscow deal. >> right. >> so there is some connectivity. >> and he is in those things. so if you wanted to know how the president would have moved money around and what michael cohen -- and what different -- for lack of a better word schemes he had going, if there was something nefarious going on to get money into different places, this is an easy way to track that. >> alfonso, what is the political impact. there is this -- the ick factor and the drama people are tired of. is there any real impact here. >> ironically and surprising this and on this i may agree with ruth and i'm anticipating this but i think donald trump is made of a stronger teflon than bill clinton. if she is allowed to talk, i don't think that will affect

president prtrump. i do think there is a legal problem. if this is indeed seen -- the campaign or the trump organization, the funds came from the trump organization or the campaign, this could be a campaign finance violation. and that would be -- a legal issue for mr. trump. i think that is a biggest issue right now. >> it could be a campaign finance violation even if the -- the funds did not come from either the trump organization or the trump campaign. as ken pointed out correctly, even if the funds -- if the funds came from michael cohen or from donald trump, or follow the money, where did they come from. we still don't know. we do not have clarity on that. if it was for the purpose of in flu -- influencing the election to make sure his wife didn't get bent out of shape then it is a campaign finance violation. >> and he was coordinating with the president. >> and you bring up the issue that has the president most concerned and that is his marriage. this is having -- even -- they

know it is not having a -- much of a political impact but an impact at home and he's feeling isolated. >> he said a strange thing at gridiron dinner last saturday -- it feels like a year and a half ago and he made this joke in his prepared remarks i believe. and he said well, who will be next to go in the white house. as if we're voting people off the island. he said why -- steven miller or melania and the audience what -- ahh and he said i won't tell you what she said. well she said behave. and just -- whoa, how interesting is that. with donald trump, a lot of times, what he is thinking is what comes out of his mouth an it is the most interesting thing to watch. >> if you are married, even if you know certain things and i'm not saying they are in this marriage. but there -- everything is not okay. no one wants to see that on tv. >> nobody wants to hear that. >> and humiliated and have it

drag on and just be reminded of it. and yes, it would be humiliating. >> and it would be. this -- it goes back to this trump week. there is a theory of the case about the political impact. that the democrats have of these days which is it is why a connor lamb who is a prosecutor who is doing well. and democrats want no drama candidates. that there is a drama exhaustion with some voters at some point. do you buy that alfonso? >> no. i think with trump he thrives on drama. >> he does. but do voters get worn out by it. >> i don't think so. the trump loyalists if you talk to them, he can do anything he wants and they'll support it. >> he said it. >> he needs more than just the loyalists. he has to get the other people -- >> but i've said before, with trump i don't think people will vote for him based on his persona or the drama, they are looking at results. so we have to talk about the economy. people are happy with the

economy, then i think he may -- >> results, a market up 400 points and the biggest job number in two years. i think donald trump feels good right now. >> voters did elect him after the access hollywood tape. they knew what they were getting. >> there you go. exactly. stick around. up ahead, could there be another high-profile trump administration exit. not kelly or mcmaster. but shulkin. the head of the v.a. is raising new questions about his future. ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. keeping the world of business connected and protected. that's the power of and.

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more "mtp daily" ahead, including a reported mutiny at the agency the president said he cares about the most and a big broadcast this weekend on the white house with risky business, jared kushner and the president with kim jong-un and we'll look at all of it with the administration, plus senator elizabeth warren as well. if it is sunday, it is "meet the press" on your local station. now julia boorstin. >> u.s. stocks trading strongly in the green after the february jobs report showed stronger than expected employment data. the dow rose 440 points and the s&p picked up 47 and the nasdaq 142. lloyd plablankfein may step dow. he down played the report in a tweet. and toys "r" us may liquidate

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welcome back. could we be on the verge of the president losing another cabinet secretary. "the washington post" is reporting there is a mutiny at department of veterans' affairs. nbc news confirms that v.a. secretary shulkin is at odds with the staff and revoked staffers access to his executive suite to keep them reporting back to the white house about v.a. meetings and apparently positioned an armed guard outside of his office. this is all just the latest in a series of negative headlines about the v.a. and including dip lorable conditions and a probe into shulkin's travel and high turnover among the senior staff. so how much jeopardy is his job in.

joining me now is the reporter who broke this story, lisa ride. lisa, it was -- the story this morning was breathtaking that he has an armed guard outside of his office. what is going on. >> everyone picks up on that. >> that is a hard one to ignore. it was a nice little detail there lisa. >> thanks. v.a. is the challenging agency. 360,000 people. only the defense department is bigger. and there is always some scandal. and it is veterans so people care so much. especially president trump. so david shulkin comes in and he's well liked but he has this one kind of problem which is he's an obama administration hold-over. and i think that a lot of the political appointees at the white house put in to work at v.a., some of them very senior people, were suspicious. >> but president trump appointed him. so how did he get into the president's good graces to get the job, one that -- there was the cabinet appointments most --

you had some that mike pence handle and some donald trump handled and this is one he cares a lot about. >> absolutely. and by all accounts, shulkin is a doctor and former hospital administrator and competent guy but i think there was a suspicion of him in large part over a controversial policy issue. that might seem archaic to people not in the government but it has to do with private care and whether veterans should have more access to seeing private doctors outside of the system. >> right. >> and there is a lot of money involved. the koch brothers are intimately involved and they have put money behind this. >> this is about no big contracts or contracts that companies are getting with the v.a. and shulkin is trying to stop. >> it is the debate over an ideological issue. so conservatives in the administration want more of what they call choice. and they want -- they mistrust government. >> the buzzword during the v.a. scandal when it was getting

attention a couple of years ago. >> exactly. and there the suspicion that there is a big bureaucracy and rate times and fudging a list for wait times. and so shulkin has been more of a moderate on the issue and there are political apointies at the white house and v.a. who want him to go much further and allow more private care. >> there is a point in the trump white house where you can gain too many negative headlines and it seems as if secretary shulkin is gaining that and travel one and then a d.c. facility bogged down in the same issues that we thought the v.a. was fixing over the last three years. >> that is right. so first what happens is about a month ago, the inspector general comes out with this report on a ten-day trip to europe with his top staff. six people on his security detail went. his wife went at taxpayer expense. he accepted some wimbledon

tickets as free gift as a -- from a promotor of the invictus games and there were enough problems and sort of ethical lapses with that trip that the inspector general pointed out that it didn't look good and he acknowledged he made mistakes. but what happened was his v.a. who already didn't trust him on the policy issues, they had chafed at his leadership kind of -- they were able to use that to sort start a coup. >> i think he's been saved by the fact that the president has always liked him. >> he just has a personal rapport with him. >> they are both new yorkers and brash and say what they think. and i also think that the white house does not want another cabinet secretary, remember we had tom price roo who resigned in a travel scandal and they don't want the loss of another cabinet secretary when they have

the russia investigation -- >> don't forget hud looks amess. ben carson is getting extra scrutiny. >> and not only that, but interior secretary ryan zinke, today it was reported or yesterday that he spent more than $100,000 on a new door for his office. >> so some people have to stay in the cabinet is what you are sayin saying. >> i think so. and shulkin is a very competent administrator. is -- so i think for now the white house said we're going to bite this one but the problem is the appointees who he doesn't get along with are still there. and so they're governing together and that could not be -- >> with armed guards. >> outside of his office. >> lisa ryan. fascinating. thanks for shedding more light on what is behind all of this. up ahead, get ready to spring forward but why do we do this? we'll be right back. let's get started. show of hands. who wants customizable options chains? ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action?

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alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. ...and help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks! i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure. always be you. welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with time. daylight saving time. this month daylight saving time turns 100. no matter how you set your clocks, it is not on out dated concept but it is an out dated concept. here is the story in "the washington post," the march 20th, 1918, the original idea was to save coal and people in charge of time, it is the department of transportation, say because we spend more time outside we use lights and

appliances less, so there are fewer traffic accidents and less crime. well maybe. but what gets me is they keep changing the darn thing. for one year, 1974, the emergency daylight time act gave it to us for ten months. but as recently as 1986 it ran from may through october. six months. that seemed logical. six and six. but that sucker is creeping up and now it runs from the second sunday in march to the first sunday in november. eight months of enforced saving. this keeps up, we're going to wind up with daylight saving time all year and in fact, florida state senate just passed a bill to do just that. which would make florida the sunshine state. do you get it? so whether you love it or hate it, it is coming tomorrow night. remember it is daylight saving time, not daylight savings time -- no s. at the end as they mentor us and remind us every year, it is not a bank. we'll be right back.

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time now for "the lid." panel is back. ruth, i'll start with you. friends at news, mike isikofp. >> and a book coming out. >> the excerpt being that they wrote on yahoo news, having to do with there were a lot of people in the obama administration, gearing up with retaliatory ideas in the moment in 2016 with russia. and the implication is susan rice and lisa monaco either acting on their own or orders from the president, nixed it. >> that turned out to be a bad idea. >> i understand their rationale at the moment, but i had elise mcdonough on last night, and i said would you do anything different? and i'm surprised there's no

regret on the report, we only have that one anonymous comment that says we kind of choked. >> you covered obama, his team is not necessarily -- the people closest to him are not necessarily those who expressed regret very easily, particular hiparticularly on the record. part of what they'll say is they didn't know enough at the time. >> we do have the mcdonough bite. let me play it because it does give more context to what i was saying. >> is there a single thing you guys would have done differently in hindsight. >> i spent a lot of time worrying about a lot of different things at different times. working with the information we had, i think we made a series of very good and very important decisions.

>> do you believe that you sounded the alarm enough? >> i go beliedo believe that, y chuck, i do. >> i think they very much felt politically boxed in. the big question, is one of the things they didn't know at the time was that donald trump was going to win. and that hangs over that discussion and no matter what they say about it, it lingers because would they have made those same decisions if they didn't think that hillary clinton was going to win. >> they tried to make it seem as if politics was not involved in the decision, politics was absolutely involved in the decision, because they thought she was going to win. >> and this validates president trump, because they knew about it and they didn't do anything. and that's apparently what happened. and we're hearing a lot of clinton people saying, well, this is the reason why, she was in a tough position and she couldn't win, but i would argue that she would have lost anyway,

but that's what they're saying. >> i think they knew about it, they didn't do enough, i can't really say it validates donald trump, we'll get back to arguing. and so what has donald trump done since? excuse me, all he has done has been to question it both during the campaign and after the election, and i would also like to -- we were talking about this earlier, i would like to know a lot more about precisely what the conversation was between the administration and senator mcconnell, when dennis mcdonough had said they were constrained about what they said publicly. >> but can't both things be true? >> mcdonough was arguing that he wouldn't have gone anything different. but mitch mcconnell could have done something. >> he wouldn't have done anything differently given the

constraints that were imposed on them. >> very quickly, 2018, it's so 2018 in this respect, we're spending $20 million by both parties to win a congressional race in a district that is actually not going to exist in november. talk about fake news, this is a fake district. >> and it's open because of a sex scandal. 2018, hello. >> how meaningful if democrats win? >> it's meaningful, but it's more meaningful if the president loses, if he goes in and can't make it. >> why do you -- i think i know the answer, but why do you think the president is inserting themselves so comfortably in this race, which is really a risky move? >> i actually don't know the answer. i think this actually helps the democrats, i mean if they win, it kind of energizes the base, which they need. perhaps he's afraid and he's

doing everything he can. >> it raises the profile of the race now. >> i think democrats have a real chance of winning the seat. >> donald trump likes to be where the action is. that's where the action is until tuesday. >> is there something about pennsylvania that makes him think he can defy the odds. >> he did his tariffs. >> tariffs and northerly kor ko. >> up ahead, we have very exciting news. let me repeat that, we have very exciting news. let me repeat that, we have very exciting news. you'll get it in a minute.

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well, in case you missed it, we have big news to share. what's that, you may be asking, you may be asking it twice or three times or four times. msnbc has it's own collection of gifts, or gifs. you can now include gifs from your favorite news anchors. just be sure to give the gifts or gifs a try. the newsnews -- the reviews are from nicole wallace, she's tried

one out, and said it was truly remarkable. lawrence is in on the msnbc gif bandwagon, he says he's already using them all the time. so check them out at giphy.com/msnbc. you might be overwhelmed by the selection, but don't get exasperated, but there's enough to go around. we'll be back tomorrow with more mtp daily, and if it's sunday, it's meet the press on your local nbc channel. >> good evening, quick question, on the internet there's a debate on whether to say gif or giph. >> i chose memes. >> if anyone knows memes, it's moms, i'll join you in stays gi frk as well. we begin