our last question of the day goes to betsy woodruff. did you watch the white house press briefing and were you surprised that sarah huckabee-sanders couldn't go as far as theresa may did and blaming at tack on the russians -- on russians. >> it is extraordinary there is so much daylight between how united states officials talk about these issues related to the u.k. and how the british government does. in january president trump canceled a trip to the u.k. citing some sort of trumped up controversy and now sarah huckabee-sanders is unable to say what theresa may is dozens of people got poisoned and the russian government deserved the responsibility. >> i'm nicolle wallace and "mtp daily" started with katy tur. >> can i answer that question. i'm not surprised. it is remarkable that the press secretary will say that the u.k. is our closest ally and we have a special rell apationship and

stand by them three times and refuse to say what the u.k. said, is that russia is likely behind the attack. you can't make this stuff up. >> you can't make it up and then when the white house said you are so obsessed with russia, you have russia fever. >> it is all on us. we have nothing to see here. nicole, wallace, happy monday. to everyone at home, if it is monday, what did you expect? tonight in character. why the president keeps attacking the free press and his political rivals. and why he keeps making it personal. plus the pennsylvania special election. the president is spending his political capital in the heart of trump country. will it pay off? and parkland school shooting victims react as the administration changes course. now echoing the nra on gun safety. >> look, he hasn't backed away from these things at all. >> this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now.

♪ ♪ evening. i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. and welcome to "mtp daily." and welcome to a day of guns, vulgarity and allegations from a porn star. we begin with a president backtracking on the message he sent to parkland high school victims and members of congress about taking on the nra. and getting serious about gun control. we begin with the president facing more questions about his alleged affair with a porn star in the $130,000 in hush money she was paid. which she now wants to give back. we begin with a president mocking what it means to be presidential at a rally this weekend. using vulgarities, jabbing one of his congressional critics as a, quote, low iq individual, slamming another again with a racist nickname and calling my

friend in the host of this show chuck todd a, quote, sleeping son of a bitch. we begin with the president praising foreign dictateors and attacking others like the u.s. we begin with many, many questions of character dogging this president. all of them from the last 48 hours. and as it often the case we begin with the white house pushing back on these questions of character. when it comes to stormy daniels, they've continued to deny the president had an affair. when it comes to the president backing away from his support for comprehensive gun reform, they are denying that too. >> he hasn't backed away from these things at all. they are still outlined in the plan but he can't make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen. you have to have some congress a -- congressional component to do some of these things and

without the support it is not as possible. >> but the president said he supported raising the age for buying firearms, which this white house proposal merely has being studied. the president said he supported universal background checks but the new white house proposal does not say that. the president said he supported seizing guns from dangerous individuals without due process and this white house proposal does not say that either and if there is anything in this plan that the nra opposes, you are not the only one. >> is there anything in here that the nra opposes? >> look, the president still has in this plan the age limit increase and that is part of -- >> it is against his policy -- >> one of those things will be reviewed on the best path forward. >> translation, not at this time. but maybe later. and when it comes to the president's vulgarity over the weekend the treasury secretary down played them on yesterday's

"meet the press" calling them, quote, funny moments. where do you begin with this president? the porn star or the guns or the obscenity. i'm joined by the christian broadcast network david brodie and the coauthor of the book "the faith of donald trump" and the panel senior politics editor beth fooey and new york post columnist john pothor its and the former clinton campaign adviser and from sirius xm political analyst. >> thank you. >> congratulations. i want to start with you, john. where do you begin with the vulgarity, with the guns, or the porn star? >> why choose. it is -- >> why not have them all at the same time. >> and part of it is -- is i think trump's over mean now is he is asking us and demanding that we not take him seriously. that is to say, he is not

presenting as a stand-up comic entertainer. he said on saturday night, you wouldn't like me if i was presidential. because i would be boring. everything could fit into that. the porn star is fun and interesting and controversial. you got the calling chuck todd a sleepi sleeping s.o.b. that is funny. >> it is hilarious. >> and it is vulgar and mnuchin said it is funny. so anything that he does, you can then dismiss on the grounds that it is all a reality show. and we are then trying to come in and impose seriously. like he is the president and serious things are going on, 200 people were just sickened by a russian poisoning assassination in england. and he's making jokes. and so if you say, okay, well he

makes jokes. he can then say, well, what are you abo-- being so serious. >> why not have more fun. >> yeah, it is all in good fun. you won't like me if i was presidential. >> david, do you agree with that? >> well, i think -- well, look, he's the greatest showman. there is no doubt about it. a movie after him clearly just recently in theaters. i think this is all negotiable with donald trump. the art of the deal -- you gruft read through the book and he knows the deal. he'll throw something out there and then, you know what, i'll tell you what, maybe not. maybe we'll do something next week. why? why does he do it? there is a deeper strategy here and i know people will laugh when you hear strategy. the guy is not a billionaire -- there is a reason he's a billionaire. >> well those there is questions on whether or not he's a billionaire. so let's start with that. i want to talk about the negotiable thing. it doesn't seem like he is negotiable all that much or say one thing to the meetings or the

faces of parkland victims but reverses back to the previously held position of the people and the money that put him in office. he hasn't been so negotiable on that much since he's been in office. >> let me be clear on the gun situation, you think he is a pragmatist in terms of knowing the congress and the republican party -- the votes aren't there for any sort of age increase on ar-15. they are just not there. so why go out on a limb and have some egg on his face because, yes, he's concerned about his image. this just in. and do that, katy. so the point is that he's not going to go there for now. that is the dot, dot, dot. for now. because everything is negotiable. >> and this is the thing about donald trump and what i've learned about him in following him. when he decides he wants do to something, people supporters are convinced he decided not to be tough on russia and the gop voting block doesn't care so much about being tough on russia. that is a big swing that donald trump was able to influence

directly. so when david said something like that, that donald trump knows the political reality, is that a fair assessment, the political reality is you won't get these things through congress? >> i mean, let's also recognize the fact that they are supporting arming teachers which is also not going to get through congress. but that is something that the nra supports. so the whole foegs -- notion of whether it could get through congress is not the case on this particular piece of gun safety measure. but just going back to what david said, it is remarkable and with due respect to david, part of the christian broadcast network, our -- these issues of character are really negotiable. the president told us and lester holt after a rally that he would no longer act that way. >> he was calling ted cruz that. >> the quote from him was when you are president, you would act differently. that is what he said to lester. clearly that hasn't happened. clearly that is not the case. one could say, well, stormy daniels, this is a relationship that happened many years ago. there are many things in the

past that he's being called to answer for now. but still fundamentally, he hasn't changed. he's willing to breach the norms of character and how to behave in not just a presidential way, but an adult way or a mature way as t as the representative of the country. chuck asked over the weekend, is this how you want o-- want to yu have your children speak and many republicans had a hard time answering that question. he put the issue of character front and center and knocked it to the ground and asked efb who supports him -- everybody who supports him to address that. >> and i want to bring in der linea. would you want your children to talk what or say those things or act that way. that was brought up multiple times during the campaign. do they have a right to say, you voted for me and that is who i am. >> i love that argument because donald trump won the electoral college so there was 3 million more people that voted for killk that means he winds the white house and he is the president and now holding him to the

standard which we want our presidents to behave and i think it is a big problem. and we've lowered the bar so far if he stands up and doesn't use profanity or attack a black congresswoman for a intelligence then we think he is being presidential but we should raise the bar for the previous presidents we had in this country. >> david, i want you to react to mark sanford, the congressman from south carolina who said that congress will be investigating any other president if they had all of these allegations against them -- or a democratic president. i think we all ought to call it for what it is. which is deeply troubling. if it was a democratic president and hush money had been paid in the campaign, would there be a series of hearings going on? i think you could probably point to a fair number of indicators that suggest there would be. is mark sanford right?

>> well i will say this, a lot of republicans think he is right and that is dividing some of the republican party. i don't think there is any question about that. i will say this -- >> which republicans think he's right in congress? >> well, i'm sorry, i missed you. >> which republicans think he's right. i haven't heard many come out and say that sort of thing. >> i don't think you will. you have the jeff flakes and mark sanford that will go one side of the lentil-- ledger and is a question they have to answer. as it relates to what was said before about what he said, he donald trump in new hampshire sh the word that he used about ted cruz and all of that, let the record we -- reflect that i called him out on that and the chuck todd comment and while he is the president of the united states -- if he goes down the road of in sulting volks with vulgarity as president, these are the key words -- please

understand -- hear me here, as president of the united states, the evangelicals will walk away and i'm not talking about vulgarity or immorality of many other kinds when he is president of the united states. he's going to lose evangelicals. there is no doubt about it. stormy daniels, 2006, 2007 they are going to give him -- and we call it in evangelical world grace. folks might scoff at that but it is grace. but not if it is happening in 2018, that is for sure. >> are you sure about that? you think suddenly now donald trump going on stage and calling someone an s.o.b. or calling elizabeth warren polka pantus and now there is a line he can't cross with evangelicals. >> there is no upside for him to there is no upside. why even go there. he has been so successful when it comes to policies that -- in erms of what -- the terms of the way evangelicals see the world, whether the embassy in

jerusalem, gorsuch and he's been successful and a evangelical adviser said what is on tap for the 2018 and they looked at me and said what is left. the guy has been a buzz saw when it comes to evangelical issues in 2017. >> why did he get a pass in the first place? just because evangelicals wanted their agenda done and they would take any sort of person to do it for them? it didn't matter whether or not that person embodied their values. >> it is a great question. look, katy, here is the answer. whether or not you or others want to accept it. here is the answer. they went with the macro version. and what i mean by that is there is a moral macro version argument to be made when it comes to morality. whether it be judges or the life issue. evangelicals are not going to get behind a candidate like hillary clinton who supported partial birth abortion and donald trump was the pro-life candidate and he's fulfilled that in 2017. i know that shocks a lot of people but that is what evangelicals are going to do -- >> we're talking about people of

faith. hillary clinton has a much deeper relationship with faith than donald trump does. i don't understand the -- >> well i think that is in the eye of the beholder. >> i could vote for donald trump who has three divorces, who said vulgar things, who has had numerous affairs and bragged about -- has bragged about grabbing women by the genitals, bragged about it on tape and yet hillary clinton is the more -- morally hard to swallow candidate than donald trump. >> well, i don't think you want to make the moral argument for hillary clinton and i don't think we want to make any sort of moral argument either way here. the point is, the way -- i'm trying to explain how evangelicals see it. they see it as donald trump is a sinner and hillary clinton is a sinner and i'm a sinner if wur flawed as humans what is left. at that point you have to go with the macro and that is the way they defend -- defend it on moral terms.

>> so my -- mike has a cover story in the atlantic on the question of the evangelicals and the question of their support for trump and what he proposes is that trump went with identity politics with evangelicals and he said that i feel your pain and i know that your issues aren't being dealt with, and you are being disrespected by the culture and i'm on your side and they went with him and that is best -- >> the best argument. >> explanation -- >> i would push back against that. >> and [ inaudible ] is evangelical too. so he has reason to state his beliefs here. >> i think that is a good point but it is white evangelicals because if you look at black evangelicals i'm the daughter of two pastors and happen to be feminist democrat so i'm unusual in that sense. but i think that when you're -- when your litmus test is abortion, you will end up on the side of the donald trump. when the moral values that you

hold dear are equality for women and poor people and getting people out of poverty and move up the economic ladder and your focus is on the least among us as opposed to saying -- i can't vote for that candidate because a made up thing that is partial birth abortion which is not a thing to be clear. scientifically, you would end up on the side of donald trump. >> hold on, david. i want to -- let's roll it back for a second. this is not just an issue of what donald trump says and the names he calls people or the positions he ends up taking. he praised dictators on saturday. he praised kim jong-un. he praised president xi for his president for life position and going after the free press. he is -- he is tearing apart and just trashing the foundation of our democracy, our first amendment and you are all for the second amendment but trashing the first amendment while at the same time -- hold on. i'm asking beth. at the same time going up and praising this man, kim jong-un,

who recently sent back an american who was brain dead and died days later who -- whose parents are publicly grieving. >> well trump was to be completely in charge as president. he is never comfortable with congress and recognizing the three branches of government. he likes to do it himself and executive orders and henceforth, this is the way it will be, like it will be on bump stocks and he ran his own company in charges of his own empire for so many years and why shouldn't the presidency be like that. he sees other countries with that model. he perhaps has sort of set -- any normal qualms aside for the thakt they cou-- for the fact t could get things done and he likes that. >> i'm out of time because we've gone over and i'm getting yelled at.

but a lot of people own businesses and don't praise kim jong-un. and we appreciate your time and helping us understand. beth, john and zerlina, we'll come back. >> the little race drawing big attention. the voters for pennsylvania 18th go to the polls and why that district could be a political game-changer.

welcome back. today in meet the midterms, we're talking about a democrat running in trump country. no, it is not tomorrow's special house race. no it is tomorrow's special house race in pennsylvania's 18th congressional direct. we'll talk about that and the new poll showing the democrat if the lead there coming up. but first talking about the democratic running in minnesota, senator jon tester and he is touting his ties to president trump. listing all of the bills he's worked on with the white house.

>> washington is a mess but that is not stopping me to get bills signed into law by president trump. eightk i'm out of fingers, i'm not finished getting stuff done by. >> and one word you did not hear, democrat. president won montana by 20 points in 2016 and he will need some the voters if he wab -- wants to win re-election as a democrat in trump country remains to be seen. up next, we're going live to another part of trump country where a democrat could win tomorrow. we'll be back with more on that race in 60 seconds. the roasted core wrap. 3, 2, 1... not cool. freezing away fat cells with coolsculpting? now that's cool! coolsculpting safely freezes and removes fat cells with little or no downtime. and no surgery. results and patient experience may vary. some rare side effects include temporary numbness, discomfort and swelling.

ask your doctor if coolsculpting is right for you and visit coolsculpting.com today... for your chance to win a free treatment. we know that when you're spending time with the grandkids every minute counts. and you don't have time for a cracked windshield. that's why we show you exactly when we'll be there. saving you time, so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ weeds. nature's boomerang. at roundup®, we know they keep coming back. draw the line. one spray of roundup® max control 365 kills to the root and keeps weeds away for up to one year. roundup®, trusted for over forty years. welcome back. on paper, tomorrow's special election in pennsylvania's 18th district should be a slam dunk for republicans. president trump carried this pittsburgh area district by 20 points. and it is represented by a republican in congress for the last 15 years. and in 2016 the republican

incumbent ran unopposed but a new monmouth university poll shows conor lamb up six points over rick saccone, that is a difference from nine months ago when he was ahead by three points. so why is this race in trump country so competitive? one big reason is enthusiasm. democrats have overperformed in the major special elections since president trump took office. republicans are already sounding the alarm that taf g-- that they've got their work cut out for them if a district like this is hard to keep. they can't spend millions on every race like this one and if the republicans lose tomorrow after the campaign appearance and after all of the money that has been spent it could spell big trouble in november. my colleague von hilliard joins us from the ground in pennsylvania. why is there so much enthusiasm

for lamb than saccone. >> i think we're seeing in the congressional races is candidates. candidates matter. if you go over to a place like texas, right, there is congressional dire congressional -- districts more popular but here you have a 33-year-old former mean vet and a prosecutor in conar lamb. he is an exciting figure for people on the ground and rick saccone has struggled to get support of people within his own county apparatus and they've relied on a major superpac to bring in door knockers and it is not good enough to have generic republican running and this is a place where mitt romney and john mccain won and in these races, this is coming down to issues and we are talking about unions. steel workers and coal miners ab they are looking for candidates to talk about those issues that are important to them and and in

this race conar lamb has spoken to a large degree to this very issues. >> how much a role is donald trump playing in the election. he was there campaigning and supposed to be for rick saccone but he spent the major of that rally talking about himself and the white house. and insulting people. >> exactly. and his son don jr. was here today. we've been with him the last two stops. trying to help him turn it out. but this is what -- from virginia to alabama down to texas, you continue what we've heard over the last year is a resistance to outsiders telling anybody how to vote. and if you -- if you were to watch tv for one night here in this district, you will have seen countless television ads from outside groups trying to paint conor lamb in a negative connotation. people in the ground say they see through it and they are full of lies. these are republicans telling me this. i've talked to multiple over the last day that told me they have always voted -- tim murphy was

the republican congressman for the last 16 years and they say they are tired of the old politics. a lot of them say, yes, they are still supporting trump and have hope but they are not seeing enough action when it comes to cool miners or getting much sexy attention when it comes to extending the pensions that they have been guaranteed and there is the possibility that those will expire and not be fulfilled but it is an issue important and conor lamb came on the stump and said he wants to see those fulfilled. >> i know ow veer our viewers would not think we are getting a turnout but he's trying to get a turnout for his father donald trump in case somebody got mixed up. great reporting out there. we'll be following you all tonight and all tomorrow. see what happens. it is a fascinating race to say the least. thank you. and it is nearly one month since the florida high school shooting. now the president seems to be

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welcome back. a major development today in the attempted murder of a former russian spy who was attacked with a nerve agent near his home in southern england. the prime minister theresa may is blaming russia for the attack. said her government has concluded it is, quote, highly

likely russia is responsible. >> either this was a direct act by the russian state against our country or the russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others. >> a spokesperson for the russian foreign ministry said her comments today amount to a quote, circus show in the british parliament. this afternoon the white house repeatedly refused to take a stand on russian involvement. >> you're not saying that russia was behind this then? >> right now we are standing with our u.k. ally. i think they are still working through even some of the details of that. and we're going to continue to work with the u.k. and we certainly stand with them throughout this process. >> she said that three times and didn't say the word russia once in that answer. prime minister may has given the russian ambassador until the end of tomorrow to respond to the allegations. and we'll be back in a moment. r rheumatologist about a medication,

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welcome back. in the months since the shooting of marjorie stoneman high school we've heard a lot from the president on gun safety. >> we'll be doing background checks and the mental health of somebody. >> they are not going to walk into a school if 20% of the teachers have guns. it may be 10% or maybe 40%. >> i don't want teachers to have guns, i want highly trained people that have a natural talent. >> think of it. you can buy a handgun, you can't buy one if you wait until you are 21 but you can buy the kind of weapon used in the school shooting at 18. if you can add domestic violence paragraphs, pages in that bill, i'm all for it. >> well the white house is out with the first set of proposals on school safety and here is what made the cut. improving the national background check system with a plan with senators cornyn and murphy and expansion and reform of mental health programs and

the most striking, promising doj assistance to help firearms training for school personnel. what is not there, no moves to curtail gun purchases by domestic abusers. no universal background checks. and no raising the gun age or the age for gun purchases to 21. if you are keeping score at home of the ideas floated by the president in the last month, only the ones that are largely in line with what the nra supports made the cut. white house press secretary sarah huckabee-sanders said that is not because the president is afraid of the nra. but that he can't make everything happen with the stroke of a pen. >> right now, the president's primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from an administrative perspective that we can do immediately. >> joining me now someone who met face-to-face with president trump on guns, congressman

deutsche. >> thank you. >> so the president tweeted this morning that the reason there is no raising of the age limit to buy guns is because there is -- there is no political support for that. is that true? >> i don't know -- i don't know what the president's referring to. there is is bro-- is brought support across the country to raise the age to buy a gun to 21. and broad support for universal back ground checks and something else the president said he supports. there is also widespread support for banning weapons of war, getting them off of our streets. when the president said there is not political support, the only place there is no political support is at the nra. and last i checked, the nra should not have veto authority over what lass -- laws we pass in this country after another mass shooting in a school and at a time when the american people want there to be change. they're tired of the same old

politics and the control by the gun lobby. >> let's play devil's advocate for a moment. sarah huckabee-sanders he is trying to get things done that can actually get done. gun reform has been hard to pass in congress with republicans or democrats in charge. it is difficult. is it fair to say that these are things that can actually make it through? >> well, look, katy, i've authored the stop school violence act and we introduced it before the shooting. it is a good bill that will help proveed re -- provide resources to training for law enforcement and students and parents to identify potential the threats. the fix nics act, it is a bill that will help to ensure that states comply with the raul and provide to the data base everything in it. but let's remember, the reason those are the only two things that the president has signed on to is because the nra has told

him that they are okay with those bills going through. is it hard to get things through? of course. is it harder dramatically for members of congress to stand up and say that they are on the side of the gun company and keeping families safe when there are high school and college students across the country who are getting ready to march on washington and in 600 locations, it is going to be really tough for them to continue doing things the same way that we always have. yeah, it is hard, but it is going to be harder for people to stand in the way of taking action to prevent gun violence. that is what we need to do. >> so do you think the president is standing in the way of protecting kids? >> i don't think that there is any question that the president of the united states, when he sat in the meeting just a couple of seats away from me, and turned to my colleagues and

said, look, i understand it. you're petrified of the nra. you are afraid of the nra and you shouldn't be and you should pass universal background checks. that is what he said just a week or so ago at the white house. when he now says i'm only prepared to do something, he retreated to a position that says i'm only prepared to do something that the nra tells me i can do, yes. by failing to take aggressive action, you helped to put kids at risk. that is -- that's the fact. that is why when there was to action after columbine and no action after sandy hook and no action still to this moment a month after what happened in my community, yeah, people look at this and say, when are you going to take action? i met with families, i met with student survivors again today. they cannot believe that nothing has happened and, yes, they tell me, when you refuse to act, you are putting more kids at risk. >> donald trump said those things that you just said he

said, we showed tape of him saying those things to lawmakers and to parkland students and saying you should raise the gun limits, that he talked about wanting to talk away guns from domestic abusers. and he talked about universal background checks. >> he did. >> do you think he was lying when he said those things? or do you think he had his mind changed afterwards by the nra? >> i couldn't begin to tell you how the president makes decisions. and what goes on in his mind. i don't know. we've seen this -- immediately after the meeting people said to me, gee, it is great that you participated but remember what happened on daca where president said one thing and then reversed course. he's going to do it again. well based on this plan, it looks like that again. remember, this plan from the white house is primarily two things. we're going to provide training to arm teachers and form a commission. the secretary of education said there is no time to waste. while we have been wasting time

week after week, month after month, year after year, she's right. but the way to put action to go forward is not to form a commission. it is to move on all of the things that the american people know have to be done to help keep kids safe and keep our communities safe. it is enough already. it is time for us to move forward. no more commissions. no more talk -- the president earlier in the weekend said he hates commissions. let's abandon this one and just move forward. >> he said commissions -- >> on common sense gun safety. >> he said commissions don't get anything done. and so you met parkland students today and what do they think about arming teachers and expanding the background check process or tightening? >> i can tell you that the -- the people that -- the students i met with today think that the legislation is -- the two bills that the president said he's okay with are fine. but they point out that the stop school violence act which is the bill that i've introduced that i

think would be helpful, that we introduce before the shootings, they rightly point out it didn't say anything about guns, it didn't acknowledge -- it doesn't acknowledge that the real issue here is the gun violence epidemic we're facing. and so they look at this and -- and redouble their efforts. redouble their efforts to get people to march. redouble the efforts to make people understand how important it is to register to vote. when they cease the policies like the one out of the white house today that utterly fails to do the things that the overwhelming majority of americans know must be done to keep people safe, all it does is get them to go out and organize more and inspire more people and make this movement bigger until ultimately there is no choice but for the president and the speak and the senate majority leader to do the right thing because that is what the demands will be upon them. >> so we should note that states seem to be taking something of the lead. florida has already passed a

bill that said there is a three-day waiting period to buy a gun. and has raised the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21. also banning bump stocks. and it does establish a program to arm some school personnel. that is a more controversial part of the bill but the nra is already suing the state of florida over those changes. congressman ted deutsche, thank you for being here. >> thank you very much for having me. and ahead, secret meetings, illicit ins -- influence and evident from at special counsel. we'll explain next. ♪ i'm 85 and i wanna go home ♪ ♪ just got a job ♪ as a lifeguard in savannah ♪ ♪ i'm 85 and i wanna go home ♪ ♪ dropping sick beats, they call me dj nana ♪ ♪ 85 and i wanna go

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welcome back. new reporting today from nbc news colleagues could mean more trouble for the president's son-in-law jared kushner. nbc news reports that officials from qatar ha have gathered evident they claim that the united arab emirates has influence over jared kushner and other trump associates but they are not giving that information, which includes secret meetings to special counsel robert mueller because they're worried it will hurt their relationship with the white house. the officials believe the secret meetings as well as kushner's business dealings in qatar may have shifted the white house middle east policy including influencing the president's endorsement of a block aid of qatar by its neighbors that began last year. people familiar with the mueller investigation told nbc news that

mueller's team is scrutinizing how that may have influenced white house policies. this reporting just adds more fuel to that fire. we have much more on mueller's investigation and the president's legal trouble coming up. and at our factory in boston, more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get.

time now for "the lid." the panel is back. i want to talk about the russian spy poisoning in a moment, but first, jared kushner and this qatari news. another piece of evidence from nbc news that mueller could be looking at. jared kushner's business dealings with foreign powers and whether or not they influence white house policy. >> we've seen a number of occasions, a number of pieces of reporting over the past couple months that suggest that jared kushner is somewhat compromised by his relationships with various governments and various countries. this seems to be the latest, a

significant one, but the latest in a long line of these, and the latest in a long line of facts that support the notion that he's probably not in the right job. >> so why is he still in that job? why is it beneficial for him to stay there? >> these other leaks that come out tell us that trump wants to get rid of him. but yet he's his son-in-law. if he wants him to go away, he can ask him it to go away. >> is it because it's safer to have him in the white house? >> he was doing everything, that's the odd part. that it was so incompetent. >> negotiating -- >> he was somebody who could get some things done and get people appointed to jobs and whatever. but the central point here is that he is a guy who has a family business. the family business is in a crisis in part because he bought a building for $1 billion more than it's worth u and they'.

and they're looking to sort of lay off the billion dollars, they're going around the world looking for a foreign buyer, and he can't do that. the whole part in the interest of this qatar story is that they developed information about kushner, the qataris, and then decided they didn't want -- >> they didn't, because they were worried that this relationship with the white house would be harmed. >> who would they have gone to to say i have this information. i really don't want to give it to mueller. i don't want to give it to mueller, so, you know what can we do here? what can we do together? >> you leak -- >> it's like that's how he's compromised. that's why his security clearance didn't go through. >> there's a number of reasons, one of many reasons why his security clearance didn't go through. that tower down the street from us is $1.2 billion or $1.4 billion mortgage that's due in november 2018.

something like that. >> one of the questions i've been thinking about this entire time is why did jared kushner want to go into the white house. one of the things that's coming more to light is perhaps he was going into the white house because he needed access to these particular entities to be able to fund his building. i don't know if that's true, but i think that we're learning a lot about why he didn't get his security clearance, right? it's not a surprise that we learn he doesn't have the full clearance, it's gone down, and now we're getting leaks with the relations with other governments. >> let's go to sarah sanders and the questioning about the ex-russian spy being poisoned. sarah sanders saying we stand strong with the uk and they are our closest ally and et cetera, but refuse to acknowledge what

theresa may said, use the word russia that russia was very likely in theresa's language to be behind the attack. >> theresa may said two things. it's almost certainly russia, what we don't know whether this was a directed operation out of the kremlin or whether something went awry and this radioactive material that poisoned 200 people in the city of salisbury, whether that was a rogue operation or something that went crazy. that means it's russia one way or the other. and it's an act of war. and we have something called article v in the nato treaty which on likbliges us. but something an attack that injures english nationals is an act of war.

>> meddling in the election, the u.s. election is technically an act of war, as well. >> there you go. >> and there has been no effort to stem that. >> anything quick? >> i just want to cosign that. they need to call out russia for their aggression. >> i like how well you guys get along. >> thank you for having us today. when is the nra not the nra? what is the nra? - there's a common thread i see every time i'm in the field. while this was burning, you were saving other homes. neighbors helping neighbors and strangers alike. - this is what america's about. - sometimes it's nice to see all the good that's out there. bringing folks out, we have seen it in community after community.

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in case you missed it, the nra isn't always the nra. sometimes it's the nra. cnbc reports people are bombarding the nra in washington, thinking they're complaining to the national rifle association. but they're actually talking to the national restaurant association. senator tammy duckworth was blasted on twitter over allegations she received a donation to the nra. it was actually $50 from the national restaurant association employee. this is the national rifle association. and this is the national restaurant association. this is the purview of the nra on the left. and this is the purview of the nra on the right. they are not the same. double-check your tweets. and these nra groups are not the nra. the national raisin association, the national radical association.

stop calling them. and the no rhubarb alliance. sure they're controversial, but leave them be. there a lot of special interest groups out there. but we only have 26 letters in the alphabet, people, so double-check before you send. it's as easy as abc. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. >> listening to that made me think omg, smh. >> lol. >> zomg. >> yeah, i would add a letter, but i'm not going to. >> well, brb, and we'll see you soon. >> ttyl. >> i thought i was -- she's gone now. my thanks to katie. we have two developing stories on the beat tonight and sam nunberg joins me here live after spending over four hours with bob mueller's grand jury. i will see you soon. first though, my other top guest