oh my gosh. this is amazing. we're so much closer to home ownership. welcome to "kasie d.c." i'm kasie hunt. we're live 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern every sunday from washington. tonight, the president campaigns in pennsylvania, but there is new reporting out he's already getting cold feet about the republican candidate. we'll take you inside the remarkable race with former governor ed randall and boyle and costello. and anthony scaramucci joins us as more and more trump campaign insiders like hope hicks find themselves outside the white house. and just out tonight, brand-new reporting on the

future of ivanka trump and jared kushner in the white house. but first, the president begins the week with major wins for his agenda, signing his tariff plan and announcing a meeting with kim jong-un. a potential breakthrough, but also a huge gamble. but in the background the advancing mueller investigation. the public melt down of a former staffer on live television, the exit of gary cohn, and reports trump's lawyer paid alleged hush money to an adult film actress. sometimes you want to get away from it all. sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. >> you like me? i think so. i like you, too. i love you. pennsylvania is the state that gave us the 45th president of the united states. normally i would not come except it's pennsylvania. i love it anyway. i love the people. i went to school -- i went to

wharton. she's writing like i'm some kind much neanderthal. i'm really smart. i don't know if i'm a good speaker, but you know what, every time i have a 25,000 seat stadium, we fill it up. maybe it's pure ideas. i'll say to friends, did you see my speech last night? yes. i have to say, how good was i? how good? and they say, good. i said, did they show the crowd? no, they didn't. he said, but you know what? i could tell by the noise that crowd was really big. you can't hide that. it sounds like a penn state football game. it sounds like an ohio state football game. i hate to put this pressure on you, rick. they're all watching. because i won this district like by 22 points. that's a lot. that's why i'm here. look at all those red hats, rick. look, look at all those hats. >> the president also found time to talk about nafta, tariffs, tax cuts, and of course the border wall.

and we barely scratched the surface. joining me on set, former rnc chairman nbc political analyst michael steel. white house reporter for the washington post and msnbc contributor ashley parker. and house editor for the cook political report dave wasser man. joining us from my favorite, the city of brotherly love, former pennsylvania governor ed randall. thank you for being here tonight to talk about what is going to be i think the dominant story through the week because dave wasserman, a lot on the line for the president here in pennsylvania. talk to us about the dynamics of this race. i mean, republicans that i've been talking to, they're blaming the candidate. they're saying rick succone didn't raise any money. he shouldn't have gotten this nomination in the first place. he has failed us. so, if we lose that's the on the reason why. this is a 20-point trump district. >> you're absolutely right. republicans have been playing the expectations game for a couple weeks trying to lower expectations and trump himself finally is getting into the act. but look, for a democrat to actually win a district that

voted for trump by 19.6 points, two things need to happen. number one, they need a favorable environment where trump is unpopular nationally and i think that isn't getting them halfway there. the other half is the difference in candidate quality. and lamb has been relentless on message. he is an outsider at a time when his republican opponent is an eight year veteran of the state legislature and has taken right to work vote. there are 86,000 union house districts. this district has the type of dna for democrats to be able to count on some ancestral strength to make it close and perhaps win. >> ed, i want to ask you on the point dave is making. what is your sense of where this district is? the union households that are there, did they just vote for trump because he's trump, or are they going to be republican voters, do you think, for decades, and do you think ultimately republicans may be able to pull this out?

what's your sense? >> well, a lot of questions, kasie. >> i'm sorry. >> first of all, president trump is not unpopular in the district. he is in the very reliable monday mouth poll. he has a 51% favorable rate. so, now, with democrats he's unpopular enough that he's going to still turnout. there's no question about that. and the only way the democrats are going to win is if our turnout really exceeds republican turnout by a lot. and that's possible because connor lamb has been a great candidate and rick succone, although he won a primary, defeated two other republicans, succone has not been a great candidate. connor lamb has won all the debates. he's done a great job in not allowing this race to be nationalized like in georgia. he's pro life. he's pro gun although he's for background checks. and he's a conservative democrat. he said to nancy pelosi he would not vote for nancy pelosi for leader. he took that issue off the

board. and the $10 million of negative ads that republican i.e.s have been spending to try to trash connor lamb are backfiring. there is a very popular former prosecutor by the name of dave hickton who did the response to some of the ads and it's cushioned them. i wouldn't be surprised if connor lamb won, but if he loses by 2 or 3 points, that's a 17-point pickup for the democrats. it's a bad sign for the republicans. >> of course, the whole point of the president's nearly 90-minute performance was to promote rick succone. so, between jabs at the media, mr. trump managed to find time to offer his endorsement of succone, including of course some light taunting of his opponent, the attractive democrat connor lamb. >> we need our congressman succone. we have to have him. [ cheers and applause ] we have to have him. the people of pittsburgh cannot be conned by this guy lamb.

lamb the sham, right? lamb the sham. i hear he's nice looking. i think i'm better looking than him. i do. i do. personally, i like rick succone. i think he's handsome. [ cheers and applause ] do me a favor. get out on tuesday. vote for rick succone and we can leave right now. >> so, that's what he's saying in public. but privately the president reportedly has not been so generous. according to new reporting just in from jonathan swan at axios, trump is trashing succone behind the scenes. why? trump thinks saccone is a terrible, weak candidate according to sources who have spoken with the president. the president nearly piling on after politico reported earlier this week that leaders in the republican party had also turned on saccone. they've been telling me that as well this week. nbc's vaughn hillyard is with us from carnegie, pennsylvania. how bad is it on the ground for

saccone? what do you know that might not be obvious to those of us here? >> reporter: kasie, i want to start with connor lamb. he had about 300 mainly union workers, coal miners, a ruckus rally down the road. was also with connor lamb here in carnegie. they had canvassers. the campaign hadn't talked to but they were coming in off the streets, going out canvassing, phone banking. it was an operation much like we saw with doug jones in alabama in those closing days. compare that to the get out the vote effort for rick saccone. outside of the rally he has been nowhere to be seen this weekend. nowhere yesterday, we don't know where rick saccone is today. we don't know where he'll be tomorrow. he had the get out the vote rally. about 15 individuals showed up for that event. i want to put this in perspective. connor lamb's campaign has spent more than four times what rick saccone has on television. paul ryan's super pac has put comparatively more than $2 million on tv here. they had 80 door knockers, paid

door knockers they had out here essentially trying to make up for what rick doesn't have. he doesn't have a campaign operation in place. i talked with the head of that super pac, the congressional leadership fund earlier today. she told me essential sri what they should take away from this is the republican party in these congressional races, they need better candidates and better campaigns. kasie? >> nbc's vaughn hillyard. thank you for that rather dire assessment of the status of the rick saccone campaign. i will see you starting tomorrow. thank you very much. michael steel, 15 people. >> that was a party. >> what's going on? >> there are a number of things at play here. it's just kind of amusing to listen to it all sort of play out. the president doesn't give a rats patooey about this race and doesn't care about the candidate. it's all about him. when he sits there comparing himself to the democrat as opposed to the republican nominee for the seat, that should tell you everything you

need to know. the second thing is lamb is a republican light and he will play in this district and he will play well in this district. he gives republicans someone to go to who may have their fill of donald trump which is why the numbers look the way they look from two years ago. and that truth for the republican party across the country right now that they need to come to grips with. you can look back and say gee we won this district by 40 points last time. this is not the last time. this is a difficult rint space now and republicans have to take ownership for that. they can blame the candidate, they can blame the campaign, they can blame the fund-raising, blame everything you want, but the one person you need to start with is the president of the united states because that's the biggest drag on every republican running in every district in this country this year. >> he does claim he's 5-0. questionable there. ashley parker, my sources have been telling me the president wanted to go and do this partly because he believes he'll be blamed no matter what. he'll be blamed, you know, if he loses, it's somehow it's going

to be the president's falts fault if he goes or doesn't go. obviously he made the decision he wanted to hold a rally. what do you know about how the white house is approaching this race? >> well, one thing his sort of rally we saw last night, it does give you a sense from what i've heard from people inside the white house of what we should expect in the midterms. it's going to be the president going to these districts. and again, not every candidate will want to have him. to be clear, there is a real risk to having him, which is the risk in some ways we saw last night. the candidate he's actually campaigning for is utterly incidental to the trump show. and you run the risk that the president sort of trashes you privately so then the whole story is even the president doesn't like this guy. or as we saw in alabama, i believe even when he endorsed luther strange, maybe i'm making a mistake. there is a real downside. if there is a district where the candidate agrees the president should go, he's going to go there and treat it like it's 2016 all over again. so, it's going to be the frenzy, the energy which is maybe

positive, but it's also going to be all of these statements once the president leaves the drilkt, the candidate may not want to answer for. do you agree the president thought that the olympics wouldn't have been fun if south korea had been nuked? that's not something a candidate wants to have to respond to. >> right. well, they should get used to answering these questions if they want to win. dave wasserman, how much do you buy this idea this is candidate based or should republicans view this as a reason to panic? >> kracrazy thing republicans trashing the race. that is going to be the opposite of most races this fall. but in this case, democrats to their credit have largely stayed out. dccc has not spent in recent weeks helping connor lamb. they have run -- they have let him run his own campaign. i think they have taken a page from doug jones in alabama who also won in a very red state. and so republicans, on the other hand, are counting on, i think, perhaps the last-minute surge of

enthusiasm, tariffs rolled out in the final week of the race, a jolt from trump to kind of light a fire under republican voters to turnout because that's been their biggest problem in these off-year elections. >> yeah. ed rendell, last word to you on the tariff question. is it your sense the president brought this issue up specifically around the politics of it as it plays in pennsylvania 18? and do you think this is a positive for the president, is this a policy that is going to earn republican votes? >> well, he brought it up to help mr. saccone. he's not doing it because connor lamb came out and endorsed the tariffs as well. connor lamb is endorsed by the local steel workers. that is not a strategy likely to help very much. the steel workers are solidsly behind connor lamb. as far as the president coming into districts, kasie, i'd like to invite him into congressman costello's district to campaign. >> congressman costello's district that is looking to change dramatically for the worst for mr. costello.

thank you both so much for your time tonight. we have much more to come. inside a battle that left dozens of russian mercenerys dead. we are going to dig into this under story. plus in our 8:00 hour i'll talk with olympian adam rippon. first former white house communications director anthony scaramucci joins me live. just three minutes to pop your popcorn. we're back after this. friends, colleagues, 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. ♪

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ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here tonight. rick saccone will be a great, great congressman. he will help me very much. he's a fine man and has a wonderful wife. i just want to tell you on behalf of the united states of america that we appreciate your service. ask to all of tnd to all of out there, we respect you very much. thank you. thank you. and then you go, god bless you and god bless the united states of america. thank you very much. >> that was the president last night on the campaign trail giving an alternative possibility of what looking presidential could look like. joining me now is former white house communications director anthony scaramucci. mr. scaramucci, thank you for

coming on tonight. i really appreciate it. >> it's great to be here, kasie. thank you. >> i want to start by asking you, you said earlier this morning that you believe that this president is presidential. what was presidential about that? he seems to be mocking the office of the presidency. >> okay. so, i still don't understand why everybody has such a hard time with the president's sense of humor. i mean, that instance he's displaying a sense of humor. when he's saying things like his button is bigger than the other guy's button, if you really know him, it's displaying a sense of humor. i think he's also making another point, he made this point on the campaign many times through transition, even the short time he's in the white house, that if he acted presidential in the way that he was mocking as you saw last night, he would have lost the campaign. and so he really believes that he has to talk in a little bit of a jarring way to the american people to wake people up and activate them to vote and get

out there and be energized. so -- people can dislike that, but that's how he is. >> when you are the president of the united states and you have that nuclear button available to you, does joking about it -- doesn't that actually put millions of people at risk? >> no. i actually don't think so. i mean, he's a very temperate guy when it comes to making decisions, particularly about the military. i've been in situations with him where -- >> there have been several situations where his military advisors have had no idea what he was going to do before he did it, including this meeting that he's taking with kim jong-un. how does that demonstrate he's measured? >> kasie, that's totally a diplomatic response to a hostile situation and an intractable problem we've had for a quarter century plus. you can take it back to the '53 armistice. that's a totally different thing than, quote-unquote, nuclear buttons. the president, again, you guys may not like this about him, but he is a very temperate guy when it comes to making decisions

like that. when he's on a stage, he has a little bit of -- he's like a frank sinatra sort of performer. and he plays to the crowd. people don't like that about him. some people at least. but there's a lot of people that like it about him. and people in those sorts of towns like, by and large that district, they get the joke with the president. they understand his sense of humor, and they welcome it. they sort of know and they can read between the lines of when he's being serious and when he's not being serious. so, what i said this morning, i'll stick to. he is the president, so at the end of the day when people are talking about presidential, a lot of people don't like this and they'll be upset with me for saying it, but he is redefining what the word presidential means. he's the president. so, if he's going to joke around like that, he looked like he had a little low energy there to me the way he was blocking around like that. that's part of it. so, there's been other presidents that have used wit from the podium. that seemed to be fine. the humor that he was using last

night, some people don't like. but that's him. and so here's the thing -- he's not changing. i can tell you that. that's not going to happen. >> sure, we've certainly learned that about him in the last year plus. i can tell you all the evidence points the opposite direction. you say he's very even tempered in making these decisions. i mean, this has been an incredibly chaotic white house. you experienced that yourself during your very brief tenure as white house communications director. >> let's go with brief, kasie. don't hurt my feelings. we're on live tv. you can you don't have to say very brief, you can just say brief. >> fair, brief tenure. but at the same time, i see no signs that this white house is anything -- it's less stable by the day. how can you possibly argue that this president is very even tempered in how he makes these decisions? >> okay. so, let's step back. i'm not talking about like the interaction between the personalities. i'm not talking about the -- >> tariffs, kim jong-un's meetings.

big policy significant things. >> let me just finish. his need for speed and some of the level of interaction that he has, he plays like an nfl linebacker, okay. so, he comes at people a certain way. a lot of people in his orbit are not used to it. people that have been on the campaign like myself, i started back in february 2016. very used to it, totally capable of dealing with it. but go back to the korean situation. he pushed them very hard and people said that he was objectionable in terms of the way he was pushing them, but i believe, and he obviously believes, he's got them to the table in a position where they'll be able to cut a deal that will add to peace, stability and prosperity in the region. he indicated, i guess in the last 24 hours, that he was talking to the president of china and he sought their cooperation on putting this summit together and this deal. and so, yes, he's coming at it -- i think i said on one of these programs, that his negotiation style is to hit you

first and then step back and then see if he can cut a deal. he's been doing that for 45-plus years in american business. so, he's doing that now as president and it's been, by and large, effective because if you look at the policies, you look at the economic growth and you look at the opportunities creating for middle and lower middle class families, and governor rendell said it, in that district he's got a 51% approval rating. i don't know if it will translate over to mr. saccone, it probably will. >> you said that you think he's redefining what it means to be presidential because he is president. do you think that the changes he's making in that regard is good -- are they good for the country? >> some, some of them are. some of them i would say to him, if he's watching the program, i would sort of be more strategic on some of the things that he's doing. i think sometimes when he's tweeting at journalists, as an example, i would tell him, hey, let's not do that. i think that we made a very big mistake early on in the

administration when steve bannon declared war on the media. i thought that was a very bad idea. i didn't agree with it at all. it's okay to disagree with the media. it's okay to take issue, but i'm a very big believer in the fourth estate. i understand the documents that were written by our founders. it is super important to have a first amendment right and it is super important to check people, kasie, that are in power. and so, again, i was only there for two fridays. the first friday was more memorable than the second friday. but on that first friday i put the lights and cameras back on in the press room or at least recommended that. we as a team did it because they get very, very important for people who are in power to be held accountable. and if the president does president like some of the critiques, whether it's peggy noonan's critique or maggie haberman, you pick the journalist, that's cool, it is okay to disagree. but let's not be at war. it's not good for america. i don't think it's good for him personally and it's not good for the presidency. so, that stuff i would really

caution him on and give him advice not to do. but the other stuff, sort of the smash mouth talking and the aggressiveness at trying to tackle some of these very intractable problems that the united states has had over the last quarter century, i sort of -- you have to give him credit for that. the american people want results and he is delivering them. >> this president seems to be sympathetic to many autocrats. and as you point out, he does regularly attack the free press. that does not seem to indicate that he is on board with the constitutional system that we've set up. >> well, see, i know he's on board with the constitutional system that we set up. i absolutely know that. i've had conversations with him there, too. but if you're making the point that he gets into a rough-and-tumble with the press that is unnecessary, i'm going to seed that point and give you that point. what i would say to you is that you're talking about dictators and so forth. i think the grid iron stuff, again, is in the joke category. a lot of people get testy about jokes like that.

he has a tendency for whatever reason, because of his personality, there are certain things that he does. there is a large group of people won't like him no matter what. and there are certain things that he does that really gets their ire up for whatever reason. i have seen him up close and personal. i've had the personal conversations with him. i know that he respects the office. i know he respects the press. and i do think we need to de-escalate. i want to bring out one last point. when you're the victim of fake news and when someone -- >> we don't use the term fake news on this show. we don't use it. >> however you want to say it. inaccurate news, let's say inaccurate news. i know guys get sore about that term. when you are a victim of it, i can tell you, it is extraordinarily painful. if you don't have a deep pocket by the way, you can't really fight back. so, and people do that in washington, they do it to each other. it's happened to me, kasie. don't like it at all. and i can imagine if you're the president of the united states and it's happening to you and your family, let's call it

inaccurate reporting or whatever you want to call it. it can get you riled up. it can be very upsetting. and i tell people that push back at the president on that, when it happens to you, then you start to realize how painful it can be. >> before i let you go, you mentioned deep pocket books and i have to ask you about stormy daniels and this payoff from lawyer michael cohen. was president trump's conduct with stormy daniels presidential? >> okay. so, what was his conduct, though? i don't know what his conduct was. >> sarah huckabee sanders has acknowledged there is arbitration around the dispute with stormy daniels over the alleged affair. she has noacknowledged that fro the white house podium. >> i don't think she acknowledged the affair. i don't know what happened between the president and stormy daniels. i'm very good friends with michael cohen. i've known him at least a decade here in new york. i think if he were here on the show tonight, what he would be saying to you is that sometimes things may not, in fact, be true, but you're still trying to

protect your principle and going about it the way he tried to go about it. and so at the end of the day, maybe it's true, maybe it isn't true. let's let the news cycle unfold. i guess she's going to be interviewed here shortly. there is an agreement that's on the table. looks like that agreement is probably in breach -- >> do you think the president is a role model for your son? >> do i think he's a moral role model? that's a good question. i saw chuck todd ask that of secretary mnuchin this morning. i'm going to answer different from secretary mnuchin. in some ways he's an unbelievable role model because he's an entrepreneur and he's excelled in three or four different businesses, and i'll tell you what, i think he's been a great father. >> i hear you, but -- >> vice-president pence said you can't take good children. in other ways i would tell the president just like i'm telling you and i would tell my kids, dial back some of the style points. your approval rating will go into the mid 60s if you do that. and i would like him to do that, but he's 72 years old in june. he's not going to change, kasie.

>> anthony scaramucci, thanks very much for your time tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> when we continue, president trump isn't the first commander in chief to favor a breakthrough with north korea. >> we have completed an agreement that will make the united states, the korean peninsula and the world safer. under the agreement, north korea has agreed to freeze its existing nuclear program and to accept international inspection of all existing facilities. >> when it comes to diplomacy with north korea, many will enter, few will win. when we come back, evelyn far cast and jeremy bash join us. don't go anywhere.

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plus savings for everyone in your stateroom when you book now during the celebrity cruises sail beyond event. when the south korean representatives who just left north korea came outside, big throng of press, they announced that north korea, kim jong-un, would like to meet with president trump. this doesn't happen. you know, they're saying, obama could have done that. trust me, he couldn't have done that. he wouldn't have done that. he would not have done it. and by the way, neither would bush, and neither would clinton, and they had their shot and all

they did was nothing. >> joining me now are two nbc news national security analysts, former chief of staff at the cia and the department of defense jeremy bash, and former deputy assistant to the secretary of defense evelyn farkas both of whom worked under the obama administration. i want to get your -- we have michael steel and ashley parker still with us as well. i want to get your -- the president there was talking about how all of these succession of other presidents tried and failed on north korea. and it's clear that u.s. policy has in many ways failed on the nuclearization question. but is this remotely at all a good idea? >> talking is a great idea. i've been watching this for the last, i don't know how long, you know, couple decades. >> right. >> from the hill initially. i went to pyongyang in 2008 when we had the agreement, the freeze under bush. i think the mistake we made in previous administrations was that we let up on the maximum pressure. we didn't keep the sanction

pressure up on north korea. we accepted their conditions, which included removing some of those sanctions. >> uh-huh. >> but, you know, it's backwards. normally the president is the closer. normally you bring the president in to seal the deal. and that's not what's happening this time. >> yeah, my reaction to that sound bite, kasie, is that a meeting is not going an accomplishment. a meeting actually is a concession, it's a huge concession to the north koreans. you are going to be putting the north korean dictator on the same stage as the president of the united states. i think north korea won round 1. they boxed the president in, they did in a sophisticated way. they drove a seam between south korea and the united states and when the skraenz came outh kore and said we have a presentation to you, he should have said hold on, let me pete wimeet with my l security advisors. i'm in. where do we go? >> ashley. >> so, i was on vice-president pence's trip to the olympics. and one thing they were acutely aware, they did not even want a

picture of the vice-president being friendly with anyone from the north korean delegation. profiled ivanka trump, learning from pence's trip, she was careful to not have a photo. she was prepared on how she was potentially going to avoid a handshake. going to jeremy's point, that then the north koreans who would have loved a smiling photo with the vice-president or ivanka have a meeting with their top president and themselves is what they wanted. >> it seems to me, kim jong-un must obviously know all of this. the reporting around this president's interactions with foreign leaders in the time he sat down with putin without any americans nearby to listen to what was going ton, clearly he feels like he probably has the upper hand here. otherwise why would he do it? >> right, right. the one thing is first of all, he's at least been in office since 2011 so even though he's young, he's about 32, he's actually got more foreign policy experience than our president. and he's got professionals that i am betting that he is listening to and those professionals have sat across from u.s. teams, different u.s.

teams over the years, although in some cases there have been some constant. and some of those people are still in the state department. but i also want to make another point. there is a really important concession i think that the president should try to get before he meets if he does this meeting and that is he should get those three americans back right now. the north koreans are holding -- our fellow citizens, right. >> this north korea announcement is not the first time that the president has made a decision that left his advisors, i think, surprised is a generous way to put it. take the announcement on tariffs last week. a decision nbc news reported was borne out of the president's anger over unrelated issues. it prompted the release of a memo from defense secretary james mattis in which he warned that tariffs should be targeted so as not to damage relationships with key allies. later the trump administration reversed course and said there would be some exemptions. there was also the time last summer when the president took to twitter and announced that he would be babinning transgender americans from serving in the

military. secretary mattis was given one day's notice about that decision. and was on vacation when the president sent out those tweets. implementation of the ban was later delayed as fights played out in the courts and transgender service members have been enlisting while all of that happens. secretary mattis has reportedly recommended to president trump that they should continue to be able to do so. and then there was the president's speech to nato leaders during his first trip abroad, which he was expected to reaffirm america's commitment to the alliance's article 5 provision on mutual self-defense. but elected not to. it was an omission that reportedly blind sided the president's own top national security officials. and about a month later woe explicitly endorse article 5 during a speech in poland. jeremy bash, what are the national security consequence of operating this way? >> there is a common thread in all of those examples, kasie, which is first, yes, from a process point of view, the process is broken. there is no process. but even more troubling

substantively, they all damage national security. so, take the tariffs, example, the defense department, people who make our weapons systems, the aerospace and defense industry, they are very concerned that it will drive up the cost of our defense systems, put pressure on the defense budget and it could alienate our key allies. >> the interesting thing about all of this, whether it's what we just saw this week with south korea, north korea, or what you just mentioned, jeremy, is the president who has his own mind, okay -- >> truly. tell us -- >> on these things. and his mind is you use the appropriate word, process. his mind is not set on process. his mind is set where he feels it viscerally. his reaction on the tariffs thing was all out of peak over what was going on in the white house. had nothing to do with a policy. there aren't policies underlying this as much as it is emotion and reaction. but here's the funny part. it somehow sort of works to a

certain extent. it gets people's attention. pieces on the chess board start to move in reaction to what the president is saying and doing. you wind up in a space sometimes going, how did we get here given the way we got here? and it's just, it's just an interesting thing for him, which is why he goes out and touts the success because in the end the tariffs thing is going to play well in the country. it hasn't back fired. it hasn't hit home -- >> he got a lot of cut out. >> he got a lot of cut out -- carve outs he's doing. he has a way of back dooring his way into a policy position in an -- >> making the headline and making the adjustments quietly everyone wants him to make. just ahead we're going to see if there are dots that can be connected between the man known as putin's chef and a confrontation involving russian fighters and americans in syria. ken dilanian is here for under covered after this. ya think? this looks better than 99% of the suvs out there.

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>> the defendants allegedly conducted what they called information warfare against the united states with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general. the other individual defendant, yevgeny funded the conspiracy through companies known as concord management and consulting llc, concord catering, and many affiliates and subsidiaries. >> the defendant that deputy

attorney general rod rosenstein was referring to there is yevgeny, a russian oligarch nicknamed putin's chef because he became close with the russian president because of putin's visits to his restaurants. through one of his companies he controls those who a taktd syrian forces in early february. according to the washington post, the u.s. responded to the response with an airstrike that reportedly killed four russian nationals and possibly dozens of other russians. the kremlin has referred to it as, interestingly enough, mercenaris. list' bring in ken dilanian who has been tracking this story for us at nbc. ken, can you -- what of this do you think is the most important to understand, why would the russians be so specific in saying these are mercenaries not associated with us? >> it's interesting with the mueller case. this is a month ago, february 7

and 8, a force of some 300 to 500 pro-assad fighters attack a u.s. base, u.s. and our allies on the eastern euphrates river. there is a large amount of russians on this. ac 130 gun ships, apache helicopters, smart bombs -- >> you wrote in this note for people trying to imagine what this is like at home, like black hawk down the movie. >> if you've seen that scene where the gun ships are firing on men with rifles, that's the hollywood version of what this could be like. absolute destruction. and we note there are recordings that have been released by the voice of america. u.s. funded website of russians basically complaining that they got their butts kicked. they used more profane language than that, in this encounter. hundreds of russian mercenaries are dead. we have a de-confliction line with russian forces. syrians called them up and said, hey, what's happening? they denied any knowledge of this. but the interesting thing is

this guy is very close to vladimir putin and the washington post had some really interesting reporting that he cleared this operation with the kremlin. now, nbc news has not independently corroborated that, but think of the implications there. if this was a kremlin-backed assault on an american base in syria, what if it had gone the other way and we are looking at a series of dead special forces, americans? and donald trump has yet to say a word about this, kasie. >> that's a test, i would say, that secretary mattis passed. i mean, he basically said, go and fire back and take these guys out. so, our troops on the ground did what they were supposed to do. troops in the sky did what they were supposed to do. i think another point we have to make is this same mercenary tactic is one the russians used in ukraine, the wagner company that yevgeny owns, they've also been active in ukraine. this is the typical kremlin trick when megyn kelly interviewed vladimir putin and he said, we have nothing to do with this. i don't know what this is. he's lying. i mean, it's a way that they use to keep some distance.

same thing they do with the cyber hackers and the trolls. they just have private people paying them, but they're working for the government. >> right. jeremy bash? >> i think the potential in the intelligence intercepts showing that the russian government, the kremlin actually approved of or at least knew of this attack on u.s. forces is amazing that the american government, that the united states, the president himself, hasn't forcefully condemned this. and basically said this is an act of war against our troops because i think as ken put this so incredibly importantly, but for the professionals, the skill of our special operations forces who repelled this attack, our president would be standing at dover air force base welcoming home the american heroes who were killed by russians. >> who knows what that would mean considering this particular has responded as you pointed out. evelyn, i want to ask you about a different story. you mentioned hacking, these groups, fancy bear that have interfered in our election -- in our elections kind of our political system generally. you worked in the obama

administration and there's been some reporting out about some frustration frankly among foreign policy officials about how far this president obama was willing to go to combat election meddling. do you think the obama administration did enough obama administration did enough to try and basically you know push back on the russian effort or not? >> so i will say, i was no longer in the administration when all of this happened. i left at the end of 2015. i was watching it from outside, although i knew we had very good intelligence the little they were saying publicly made me alarmed. i believe they should have done more the putin and president understand no they only understand firmness. if are you not firm with them they will keep pushing, which is why we are in danger now. i don't want to second guess president obama. he had his reasons. he didn't want to escalate the situation. he didn't want president put on

the attack our election more directly maybe tampering with the data in the computers. i can't say. i wasn't in those meetings the way to bet the kremlin to be stop is to be firm. >> i think actually it's slightly differently, i think the president didn't do it because he didn't want to be accused of helping hillary clinton win. the antidote was going to republicans sand thai say let's do it in a bipartisan way, they were shut down the message is that responding to russian afwregs in our elect, russian attacks has to be bipartisan. >> just be clear what the reporting is, so our viewers understand, there were people preparing secret cyber options to retaliate, including leaking information about putin's daughters and senior officials shut that off. they said stand down, we're afraid this will leak and box the president in. >> potentially have the president coming down on the other side, thank you both so

much for your time tonight. we appreciate it. in our next hour, ashley parker has brand few reporting about ivanka trump's shrinking roles in the white house, amid rumors she and her family may move back to new york. casey d.c. back after this.p

. so what have you guys been up to since we saw you last? >> what we do best, taking the trump organization to new heights. i took a trip to india which is an incredibly poor country, where i'm hoping to make a lot of money. >> i saw "paddington 2." >> yeah, sure did, bud. >> just ahead, another packed hour of casey d.c. and we'll talk about the converging interests of the trump and kushner families. plus i am joined by the stories of john meacham who will put this into some semblance of context and my interview with olympian adam rippon, our producer is always on thin ice, they watch the sunday shows sow don't have to.

to be frank, we're running out of ways to say we've never seen a week like this before. >> what a week it was in washington. >> trump made bold moves on trade and policy. >> the president's stunning invitation. >> agreeing to meet with kim jong- jong-un. >> i would expect the meeting goes forward. >> i am very concerned, very worried that they're going to take advantage of him. >> the president will be fully me paired. >> i think talking to people is

never a bad idea, as so long as you maintain that pressure. maintain that maximum pressure, maintain that pressure. continue the pressure. what we ned to do is maintain the pressure. maximum pressure campaign, again maintain the maximum pressure. it's that simple. >> then there's stormy daniels the adult film actress who says she was paid $130,000. >> you have to ask michael cohen why the payment was paid. >> michael cohen addressed this extensively. >> mr. trump was inware rare form. >> in pennsylvania. >> we have to be very nice to kim jong-un. >> making the case for the death penalty for drug dealers. >> i don't know where to start. >> he's using those vulgaritys in the context of a campaign rally. >> words matter. >> the president likes making funny names. obviously, there were a lot of funny moments on that rally. they were hilarious. >> welcome to the second hour of

casey d.c., welcome back for round two, michael steel and ashley parker, joining the table, chief white house reporter for the boston "herald" kimberly atkins and former assistant to the secretary of defense and lest evelynn far cass, also with us from nashville historian an contributor john meacham, john is also the author of the new book "the soul of america," the battle for our better angels which is due out in may. john, i'm going to have to start with you on that, because i don't really get the sense the better angels of history were sitting on president trump's shoulders last night. i'm wondering if you can put this in a little bit of context for us. >> that's a bold assertion, katie. >> i think that's where we are. this is where we are. the country perennially battles between light and dark. you know r, no era has been as

great as we'd like to think, but also we have the capacity to move forward. it's a uniquely american idea that tomorrow can be better than today. that's not necessarily a european idea. president reagan, president roosevelt, president jefferson, president lincoln, they all talked about how hope was a critical factor in our political and social and cultural life and one of the striking things about this era and i'm convinced that as we, if we ever are able to make sense of it, one of the things that will be a hallmark is that the president at every opportunity where he could have talked about hope, he could have talked about building, he could have talked about growing beyond his own base around his own campfire, instead, he's played to fear, to our worst ink instinct and not appealed to our best. >> john, there are some ways in

which this president seriously departed. i'm going to throw my producers for a minor sound byte of the president talking about china and being president for life. but how much of this do you think is undoable, if any of it? this president is kind of breaking the system in ways that i'm curious your view, have people broken this system this way before? >> that's a great question. one of the things i think is self-evident right now is we know the presidency hasn't changed dominican republic. so the presidency has donald trump changed the presidency? we're in the middle of that story. my own view is i have immense faith in the resilience of the system. you know the founders expected seasons of unhappiness, demagogues. the reason it's so hard to get anything done is because they worried about this exact kind of moment. and basically, the rule of law,

the free press, though it's under a great deal of critical attention from the very top, cable news has never had a more careful critic than donald trump. all these things are working, it feels even more content schuh with us than usual. it feels as though everything is straining, but the constitutional order and political order, as long as everybody stands up and plays their part, i think we'll get through this. >> we have that sound byte of the president last night. he had joked about this at mar-a-lago, that was reported again and he referenced it in his speech, take a look. >> so i woke up and saw all these reports, yeah, anybody could have done it. oh, yeah, sure, everybody could have gotten president xi, president for life, that was another one, so he's president for life. it happened two days ago and i was joke, ib was at a roast, actually, but i was joke, i

said, ha, president for life, that sounds good, maybe we're going to have to try it. president for life? but i'm joking. but i'm joking. everybody in the room was laughing, emp everybody was having a good time, i'm joking, a couple went back, donald trump with his dictatorial attitude now wants to be president for life. >> is he joking or does he actually want to be president for life? >> it's an interesting question on the one hand, you can certainly see him wanting to be president for life. other than, you can see him not wanting to be president for much longer. it's a sort of love all of the power of the presidency and what he thought it confirmed, he doesn't like the processes and the minutia, some days he loves it and some days he doesn't understand why he has to go to these boring meetings. >> that's the set up here.

what i find ironic donald trump has or is the very thing that republicans feared barack obama would be. and there was a lot of talk in this town that, you know, he's angleing to get a third ter, you know, he's angleing to be president for life. this is a nice quiet republican circles. the silence on dominican republic's remarks are a little bit deafening within it comes to this, because, you know, oh, it's just a joke, it's just a joke. but his behavior and rhetoric and antics dictates something else beneath that, i think it is why people were alarmed within they heard him say it, even though, yes, it may have been a joke, your jokes, sir, are taken much more seriously than some other politicians in this town. >> it was joking but not joking, right? because a lot of things this president has done has resembled as sort of evidenced his desire for a more autocratic form of government, right down to wanting a military parade. >> something i forgot about

that. >> he invites north korea to his frustration that he couldn't just go into the white house and implement policies or direct the congress to repeal and replace obamacare and he couldn't walk if and institute a ban on mostly muslim countries. >> he has by congress, i will say that. >> he has this idea the pretty was sort of like being the ceo of his own company, it's not. he's expressed frustration about that from the beginning. >> what does it say to as china is looking at how we're conducting business and thinking about what strategic moves they're going to make? it seems leak this gives them something of an opening or signals to them, hey, you know, this president wants to be more like us, we can exploit that. >> yeah, if i can add one thing, i would ask everyone to read max boots op-ed he did recently in the washington post online, he has a whole list of these supposed jokes that hint towards what donald trump might think. i think the chinese are watching this saying, we got this guy's

number, while he's worrying about becoming strong and doing all these pr stunts, we're actually going to go and reclaim the island territories in the south coin seas that aren't there so i shouldn't say reclaim, they're taking them out of the sea and building up the islands, strategically blocking us potentially if they want to, from access to those areas, we are talking trade and freedom of navigation. they are continuing to do what they do in asia through sugar and pressure, consolidating to themselves, economic and political power, while we are largely ab sent. you know, all of our allies signed the other day the day trump seened the tariffs, they signed the tpp the transpacific partnership agreement that president trump negotiated with all our asian allies, they signed it without us. >> again a much different and potentially historic shift for the u.s. role in the world. i want to also pull john meacham book in the conversation for this, jeff flake spoke to my

colleague chuck todd on "meet the press" whether the president needs challenged in 2020. >> he announced to be president in 2020s do you think he needs to be challenged by somebody that espouses your views? >> i do, it wouldn't be a tough go. the republican party is the trump party right now. that's not to say it will stay that way. >> john meacham, houmonts in our history have we seen a breaking apart of a political party like this and do you think that's what's happening here with president trump and the rest of the republican party? >> yeah, we've really had three or four big shirts and what makes those eras like the other eras, when the wig party changed

in the '50s and the republican party changed fundamentally during civil rights era, you have moments where parties can fought come to a consensus answer on an existential question of the time. so the 1850es, it was slavery ad the expansion of slavery as we moved west. in the civil rights era, obviously, it was the question of a fundamental mission of the jeffersonian idea of equality. so when there is fundamental disagreement, then there is a mixing. now, because of the electoral college, we tend to have to have two, people always say, france has more parties than they have people. why in this country this big done we have more? it's about getting 270 electoral votes. even if you get a plurality of the popular vote, you don't get to 270, wha whoever the majority in the house picks the president. that's the reason michael

bloomberg has never pulled the trigger on running. because he saw a path to a plurality, not a an electoral victory. my own view is at the moment, senior flake was saying to chuck, right now, there is not agreement on the republican side or obviously the democratic side either about globalization and its discontent, trade, movement of people and ideas, neither party has a coherent program to address that. so that kind of chaotic political climate, even, enables a figure like trump to step in and rise forward in can way strom thurman in '48 and wallace did in the '60s on the issue of race. >> let's talk about bannon, he seen his star fade as a mid-term instigator. now he set his sights abroad

this weekend he added a certain -- addressing marine le pen in france. >> history is on our side. >> let them call you racist. thet lem call you xenophobe, let them call younativist. wear it as a badge of hon for, every day they get stronger, we get weaker. >> michael steal go ahead. >> if you can stand up in front of a group of miami and say, yeah, let them call you racist. you should wear that proudly. you should be proud of being a racist. of being afraid of people who don't look like you, come from where you come from sound like you, that's not let alone a country but a global community i don't think people want to be a part of, yet there is this

attitude freed up by the 2016 campaign in the way that trump talked about these things, saying it'sing a to do that. we saw that in cpac and other instances people felt emboldenned to share their racism in such an ecumenical way. come along, be a part of this great movement. we fought against this movement. we put down this movement. a lot of men and women died because of this racism and xenophobia, why would we want to go back to that. >> can the party of lincoln survive that? >> the party of lynn can can survive that. this party in my view cannot. i have been saying for time now, republicans who prescribe to those fundamental principles who describe who we were, you need to speak up, put down this kind of crazy, put down the noise at the campaign rally. and senator flake is right, what

kind of voice will emerge has to be one better than the one we hear now. >> can, is that shift possible? it seems where trump went is where the republican went. before you had republicans who believed trump was the outlier and the greater party would constrain what he was doing. what we seen happen is the party has gone with trump the outliers are folks like senator flake who are trying to bring it back whereas the shift is happening, sometimes evan jegelicalsevange. >> that's what happens when you don't have a pair, when you think it is more expedient to give into the kind of rhetoric we heard than stand and find it. imagine jen rakes ago if individuals did that, there would be no civil rights movement. the republicans would haveco pit lighted and said -- have

capitulated and said we're right here. they led on those issues the 13th and 15th amendment, the votings rights act thecism rights act. the fact we feel more comfortable of playing to the base racest instincts says who we are. there are a lot of people that don't want to stand a little taller, there are move of us out there than you think don't want to be there. >> can you stay in the republican party if they keep talking like this? >> i was here before they were. my attitude is you ain't going to move me out of my house that fast. i at least want to fight the good fight. there is a lincoln republican, i believe those individual freedoms matter. they're worth fighting for. i was thinking recently, casey, about a young man growing up in this town and making a fateful decision to joan the republican party 41 years ago. there was no steve ban none, no donald trump in that space vp i

looked at william buckley, ronald reagan and my community that spoke to me in a way that made sense. >> that voice is now missing the question is, do we want to fight for the next generation or give up? i think the fight is worth it, despite what we see happening right now. >> thank you very much for your time tonight. evelynn farkas, thank you to you as well tlmplts . there is much more tonight the kushners and trumps are in business together. i am joined with brendan boyle and ryan costello as media, mayhem come to their home state. we are also keeping an eye on new york city, a helicopter crashed into the east river. at least five people were on board. the scene remains very active. nypd drivers are searching for xaengss at this moment. we will keep an eye on this.

casey d.c. live in washington. back after this ♪

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. i could actually run my business him i could actually run my business and run government at the same time, i don't like the way that looks but i would be able do that if i wanted to. i would be the only one that would be able do. that. >> the president says he sees no problem with a president running a business and the company and

the country at the same time. he remains the fully invested owner, just like his son-in-law jared kushner, who retained most of his stake in his family's development business. if that wasn't enough potential conflict of interest, a new report out tonight reveals trump's and kushner's companies are in talks to go into business with each other. the "time's" writing the cush first are if private discussions to have president trump's company manage at least one hotel at the center of the jerty shore development. known as pure village. though know deal is final. ethicist marlin glynn saying the talks could be troubling. quote the concern is that the president might not want to do anything that would upset the kushner family agreement to do business with his company him joining me an investigative reporter at the "new york times" bi-lined on that story.

thank you very much for being with us tonight, sir. can you walk us through, what is the top line concern here? this is essentially completely unprecedented. >> you already have the family tie, you add the extra layers. that's the ethic folks we talked to raised when we discussed what was happening here, you have one hotel deal that started last year quietly. the trumps are already managing for the cushers in. a second one in the works long-running talks for two years the financial layer in addition to the family layer. >> and the kushner companies also have some foreign connections that are potentially problematic, no? we seen jared kushner be involved in a lot of foreign policy questions that have raised questions about his business ties? >> yeah, that's been a part of the backdrop, one of the questions that comes up, where is financing coming from? that's a part of the question, the trumps you know at the onset

of the presidency said no foreign deals in new countries. there are questions that need sorted out when it comes to deals in the u.s., whether the kushners or any other counterpart where the money comes from as a part of these deals. >> does this give jared kushner leverage in a way could appropriate? >> i think the question the ethics experts the watchdogs here would say that is the money here, does that bring up leverage, that was a word we heard in the reporting, is there leverage having these kind of financial entanglements involved in the white house, does it bring another extra layer of ethical headlights? in there thank you very much for your time. appreciate it. john meacham, can i get to you weigh in here, there are so many thorny questions here. have we seen an example in the past of a president being so tied up?

the web is kind of insane. >> no, we can move on. no no it's part of, we're sort of in the land of broken toys here of ethical questions. presidents used to get in trouble for traffic tickets compared to this. and one of the things that i think is and i'm just admit to my own naivete here. it never really occurred to me that a president of the united states, himself, would be in it for money while in office. we all understand they go off, write speeches, write books. some serve on boards, whatever that's an entirely different question. the idea that you would be in the office with lincoln and fdr and worried about a deal at pier village in new jersey. it doesn't even compute and so i

think this is genuinely uncharted territory. imagine the world set its hair on fire over the fact that jimmy carter might not have sold his farming interests. he did i think as i recall. but that was the level of question, would a georgia peanut farm create a question for the president of the united states, fought raising money to build deals and undertake deals around the world? and so what i love, okay, is that you know all of us are prone to hear what we want to hear. i think when you played that clip of the press conference during the transition, i think what the president-elect heard, there are interesting questions whether the president, himself, can have a conflict of interest.

it's an interesting point, it's an intellichecktual one. he took that literally. i think that's the ethos of what's unfolding. >> you got some new reporting on the front page of the washington post tomorrow ivanka trump and her husband jared kushner, walk us through is she in a new and different place in this white house now? >> a little bit. she is basically grappling with two things, her tensions with chief of staff kelly have come ford. he is incredibly frustrated with her and jared cush mer. he feels they want to be staff and his attitude is you want to be staff, you can imagine she hasn't loved that she is the opposite of her father a control freak, over prepares, studies the briefing books, leaves nothing to chance.

she tries to control everything in a world spiraling out of control the mueller investigation is reaching potentially into her father and her husband. so she is trying to do ma she can to maintain control, it's an environment she really has none. >> what is your assessment of jared and ivanka, jav anca. it's tough to say. >> they're family, since the beginning, there has been this suspect lation, they're family. where do you put them? perhaps you put them in the campaign now the president officially or unofficially launched his re-election bid. that's the problem you have it's not someone like steve ban nono you can fire. she does not share the ideologies of her father. that's one major problem here.

so she seems sort of isolated when an issue like family paid leave where the president listens to her. he treats it as a pet project. >> in talking to her, she said there is fair criticism where is ivanka on x, y and z. she says people that say that don't understand the role of the white house. she is not to contradict her father's administration, if she doesn't say anything, she disagrees. she was quit on guns, on health care. >> still to come, less than 48 hours to go until election day in pennsylvania's 18th district. we will get a pulse of pennsylvania as it ticks down to the final hours. ♪

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voters in pennsylvania's 18th congressional district will head to the polls on tuesday for that highly anticipated special election him joining me on set democratic congressman from pennsylvania brendan boyle and republican congressman also from pennsylvania ryan costello. thank you both for being here. i know this is a little offbeat format. thank you both for playing ball here. i want to talk about first the election in pa-'18 before we

talk about the state broadly, i can't find a republican to say something nice about rick saccone right now. >> i think he's a nice guy. i don't know him very well. >>er i should say about his political skills. >> well, this will be a get out to vote operation. what politico decides to write about lamb versus saccone, that's inside the beltway. >> i'm not saying politico. i'm saying i want to try to fine somebody who is willing to say we think rick saccone is doing a great job and has a real shot. >> i think the rick saccone campaign will get out the vote. it will be a very close race. he is very capable of winning this race. >> congressman boyle, what does this state of affairs say as to you where pennsylvania is in the era of trump? obviously the state went for this president in a steve e devastating way for democrats, do you think that the people who voted for trump are just trump

voters and still remain? a lot have been pulling the lever for democrats for years. >> 1st i am not saying this because i am a plowproud pennsylvanian. i think it's the best barometerer of all the 50 states where the nation is right now the fact that you have a close, competitive race in an otherwise r-plus 11 seed, i this it is emblem matic of where pennsylvania is and where we are nationwide. for all of rick saccone's possible shortcomeing, right now, it's the national environment and donald trump he is running against more than anything else, there is an irony, he likes to say he was trump before trump. she telling the truth. he was trump before 2010. >> in what ways? >> his bombastic style. she unapologetically down the line conservative. many of the things like immigration that donald trump started talking about in 2015,

2016, saccone was talking about in 2010. >> the thing the democrats did early on republicans said i'm not going to support fancy pelosi as democratic leader, he innoculated himself. do you think that's what democrats have to do to win the house back? >> i think ryan wants to answer that question. >> if you are a democrat in southwestern pennsylvania, you have to say that. you have a lot of democrats starting to vote republican as they maintain their democratic party resignation. in a party like mine you have republicans starting to vote democrat while still maintaining their res egg nation. >> conner lamb is the typical western pennsylvania democrat. i served with a lot of them. they used to be in the u.s. house until recently. let's not forget, in this districts you have a majority voter demonstration democratic. but for guns and other issues,

our democrats on economic issue, tim murphy was a generally pro-organized labor republican. rick saccone is total tea party when it comes to labor, that's rally hurting him in that district. >> so where are the two the one issue with the president tariffs. a lot of people say privately this is why the predecessor did is because of this race. you were both from the philadelphia area. are you on the opposite side of this from the president? >> to use the speaker's term, i think it will need to be much more surgical than it's being proposed. at the same point in time, i think that there the a feeling in all of our districts that china has -- gets away with things and that we do need to reign them in. there is a piece of what the president is proposing that my gut wants to be supportive of, but it can't be as broad brushed as it's been proposed. >> the politics of this issue i know are a little bit odd the

reality, i have been saying this before the president's action, we already are in a trade war, china, south korea and vietnam are the three biggest violators. the u.s. will win an action in the wto, china will simply outsource their steel to vietnam, change one little thing about the steel and import it to the united states. so we do need to take an action the reality is presidents o both parties have ignored this issue too long. >> you will be facing interesting shall we say redrawing the district where i am from you currently represent. you facing a primary, i'll give you guys a quick to both of you, do you ung that the way this map has been redrawn is fair? do you think that the people of pennsylvania are being better represented be think new map? >> here's my view the reality is pennsylvania had one of the post-gerrymandering maps in the country, going to a new math i think is very much warranted. the fact it's happened one week before we start petitions i felt was unfortunate. i wish this had happened in

2017, not a week before petition, that said, whether it's pennsylvania or nationwide, you need to eliminate gerrymandering. what is one of the things that comes out of the court decision. >> it's created more political polarization. you had four state supreme justices upend the legislative process, you had 40 vote for it in the state house in 2012. no one object to it if 2012. it's only because they want from democrat to republican. they started a fictional issue when none previously existed. >> saccone or lamb? >> saccone. i said in december lamb. >> the art of the eagles. >> wait for it, congressman ryan boyle, ryan costello, thank you so much. still to come, adam rippon, as the state of pennsylvania dom fates d.c., we take you to a break. sorry, eastern pennsylvanians here on this set. we all won this year.

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president trump pitched his new tariffs on steel and alluminum imports in pennsylvania last night while campaigning in tuesday's special election. take a look. >> your steel is coming back. your steel is coming back knows plants will be opening, what

we've done with the 25% tariffs for those guys that come in and dump their steel all over the place, by the way, it's not good steel, you guys know what i mean, it's trap. but your steel is coming back. it's all coming back. >> i guess we'll see, john meacham, we seen tariffs backfire sometimes in the past. right? >> yeah. well the 1920s is a period worth studying pretty closely, because we restricted immigration. we built tariff walls and had isolationism. we know what happened in the early 40s, steve ban none said a moment ago if your clip, history is on the side of the isolationists and the nativists, that's not true. the free movement is about prosperity, it's about progress. that's where history is. >> john meacham, you are also working on a few project. tell us about it. >> it's on the other side, it's

in your state, so you'll approve in philadelphia this week. there is a great group issue one putting toke a big movement of foreign elected officials, some historians, the great joe ellis. we're having a meeting there on thursday, can you watch it live stream, talking about renewing the founders promise. how can we get these systemic problems in politics fixed? i think the more light we can shed, the better we'll fight the heat of the moment. >> john meacham, thank you for coming on tonight. i really appreciate it. just ahead, my one of one with olympian adam rippon, ahead, more controversy with the vice president. we are back after this.

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adam rippon made history at the winter olympics before he stepped onto the ice the 28-year-old figure skater entered as the first openly gaye athlete for the games. he criticized vice president mike pence for his stance on gay

rights. i asked the newly minted bronze medalist about that and what comes next when we spoke earlier this week. the vice president and his team say they reached out to meet with you. first of all, did you ever get an invitation from the vice president to meet with him before the games? and why do you say now that it might be the right time to meet with him? >> you know, i had a phone call from the usoc saying the vice president's office would like to set up a phone call with me. it was two weeks before the olympics. when i've been training, i don't go out with my friends because i feel like even that will be a distraction. i feel like maybe meeting with the vice president might be a little bit more distracting than trying to see like "bridesmaids" or going out to eat. i had to decline at that point.

at that point, my job was to be an olympic athlete and represent the united states as well as i could. i've always said if the opportunity were still available to me to talk with the vice president, if that phone call was still on the table, i would take it because, you know, what i did say was i didn't feel that mike pence was a great choice to lead the delegation at the olympics, because i didn't feel like as an openly gay man that he represented me. i think that he's pushed a lot of anti-lgbtq legislation. but that phone call i would have with him wouldn't be for me. it would be for those people whose lives have been affected because of that legislation that he's pushed. i think the olympics have given me an incredible platform that i've really tried to utilize every second that i have to give

people a voice when they don't feel like they are being heard. >> what would you have to say to the vice president if you had him on the phone? what do you think he should know about the people that you're talking about here and yourself? >> you know, he tweeted at me right before the opening ceremony saying that he was for me and for all of the athletes. while i was grateful to get that tweet, you know, will he still be for me when one day i hopefully will get married? i mean, i'm a handful so i hope that i will one day get married. but when i come back home, are you still for me? are you for that transm man or woman that wants to join the military? i think it's human rights and i think everybody deserves to have the opportunity to live their

life to the fullest, especially if they want to serve their country or marry the person that they love or just go to the bathroom. >> if president trump were to invite the olympic team to the white house, do you think you would go? >> i don't think that i would go. you know, i think even more than mike pence, i think donald trump, you know -- if donald trump spoke to my sister or my mother the way he's spoken about other women, i mean, i just wouldn't tolerate it. or if i or any of my mom's sons spoke to women or treated people that donald trump has, my mom would kill me and i'd be dead and this would be, you know, a profile of my life, not me gives an interview because i'd be dead because my mom would have killed me. >> thank you so much for being here. we really appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. when we return, what to

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the reality is that the incidents of sex trafficking from increased because of the internet. all the data shows that. this legislation we're talking about today gets right at the problem, which is to take away the immunity that these evil websites that knowingly engage in sex trafficking currently have. >> that was part of my

conversation with senator rob portman about his support for a new bill that would hold websites liable for sex trafficking content posted on their platforms and make it possible to sue those websites in court. right now websites are protected by federal law and cannot be held liable for third party posts. back in september, a woman testified on the hill about her daughter desiree robinson. she says when she was 16 she was pressured by a pimp into sex trafficking online on backpage.com on the day of christmas eve a man found her on the website and she was brutally murdered. if you could say something to your daughter about the fight you're waging for her right now, what would you say to her? >> mommy loves you. mommy has always loved you. mommy will always have your back.

>> so that's what i'm going to be watching for in the week ahead. that bill is going to be on the senate floor. there had been some opposition from technology companies that had sort of eventually waned after public pressure. what are you watching for? >> i'm going to be watching for california. it is the state that president trump loves to hate, but he's headed there on tuesday. he has a fund-raiser. he's going to be heading down south and seeing a bit of the border wall. >> those are those prototypes of the wall. >> yes. >> this week the president is finally releasing his school gun safety plan which focuses a lot more on fortifying schools and walks back the age limit that he had proposed before before the nra raged and gave their opposition to it but at the same time across the country students are going to be staging pro tests. this debate will come to the forefront. we'll see if that sways the

president. >> i'm going to be heading to pa-18 tomorrow to report on that special election. that does it tonight for us on "kasie dc." up next, a special document "this happened" sex lies and the candidate explores the gary hart scandal. this story is a 20 on a scale of one to ten. >> with me is gary hart. >> hart was the spokesperson for a generation in search of change. >> he had a whole different idea of the way government should be run. >> very bright, focussed on substantive issues. >> he was so good looking, he didn't look like a politician. >> i see an america too young to quit. >> he's as close to a lock for the democratic nomination as you're going to get. >> he really believed he could go all the way. >> it's an issue of recapturing our basic principles and