we're out of time. thanks to donna, john and evan and the rev. that does it for the hour. i'm nicolle wallace, "mtp daily" starts now. >> did you think you would get through the 4:00 hour without breaking news. >> i bet you're going to have some. >> we'll see. >> i have that friday feeling. >> that is the reason you have to stay tuned in. if it is friday, where there is smoke there may be firings. tonight, the president denies reports of another staff shake-up. today, how close is the cabinet to being fully remodeled. >> he just nominated two new people to be part of his cabinet so we are getting close. plus a new bombshell allegation in the stormy daniels

case. this one involving threats. >> was she threatened in any way. >> yes. >> was she threatened physical harm? >> yes. >> and russia ramps up the cyber war on america's infrastructure. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. ♪ ♪ good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington and welcome to a friday edition of "mtp daily." it is 5:00 in washington. do you know where your white house advisers are? which is worse, the uncertainty knowing there is another round of who is exits or the uncertainty unleashed from not knowing exactly who is going to leave or when. president says more changes are coming. all at the same time denying reports that more changes are coming. but perhaps notably he's not leaving town for the weekend which makes you wonder if he is anticipating a big weekend.

white house is watching their backs and here is white house press secretary sarah huckabee-sanders. >> spoke to a number of staff this morning and reassuring them that there were personnel changes, no immediate personnel changes at this time. and that people shouldn't be concerned. we should do exactly what we do every day and that is come to work and do the very best job that we can and that is exactly what we're doing. that is exactly what we're focused on and many of us have relayed that to other staffers that weren't part of the meeting. >> here is a problem with that. there are conflicting reports about john kelly and there are multiple reports including from us here at nbc news, the national security adviser, mcmaster was on his way out. rex tillerson was fired by tweet three days ago. one of the president's top personal aides was fired after revelations he was being investigated over some gambling habits. there are a slew of escalating controversy facing members of

the cabinet. there is an armed guard out sited v.a. secretary's office and amid that chaos, the president is readying to meet with north korea and reportedly considering a new national security advise who are has said we should bomb north korea. our alleys in britain and france and germany are trying to get the president not to blow up the iran deal and the advisers are left in the white house to stop him from doing that. russia is stepping up cyber attacks and the new cia chief is awaiting senator confirmation and the white house chief economist just left. and if you are wondering about the civility of policy get in line. and if you are still waiting for a pivot from this president, stop waiting. this could be the pivot. some is may have wanted him to pivot away from turmoil and upheaval but that is so 2017 u. might call this the trump pivot when he casts off the staff constraints that try to time -- at times to contain him in exchange for advisers that may unleash him.

the moment trump is basically acting as hi own secretary of state and trade rep his own communications director and office manager and legal counsel and his own political strategist and as we've seen, sometimes his impulses could be his own worst enemy. joining by kelly o'donnell at the white house. kelly, i hate to put you on the spot here, but there is some reports of an off the record meeting all of you had with john kelly that are now surfaces out there in his attempt to try to tamp down the feeding frenzy about staff changes. >> reporter: well, putting the off the record aside, i think from being in the west wing today and talking with a number of different officials, there are some things that you can perceive. there is what i could call a deflated attitude. there is a sense of perhaps the physical weight of all of the turmoil we've been reporting on. working in a white house is tough. this feels like it carries an extra burden. in addition to that, i spoke with a senior official who has regular contact with kelly and

with h.r. mcmaster who said things are calmer than they appear. we also notably have seen h.r. mcmaster, the national security adviser, the subject of stories, quite visible on the west wing side of things today, outside where we're able -- >> more so? >> where we're able to get pictures of him. we're in a watch mode so any movement he makes we're more attuned to. but today we had a couple of different opportunities to see him. i'm told my multiple officials he was in meetings with the president today. so what does that tell us? it seems to be at least for now they want to suggest that there is no imminent change. but when you mentioned the president, i'm always following the president on weekends, one or two weekends a month he is often away from the white house. he will be here this weekend. no sense of is something imminent. we just don't know. having an alert on the twitter feed of the president may be the best way we can game this out. but there was a definite attempt to try to calm the waters about personnel issues. and of course stemming from

personnel are all of the policies because when you change people you slow down policy. so there was a definite attempt to try to say things are okay, the lid is on the tea kettle and at the same time there are other officials who don't know how long that holds. >> and it is notable, we didn't see the president at all today and i think one tweet total about nevada senate and that is about it. >> reporter: well, it is a day with no public events. so what -- he will often have meetings behind the scenes and visible yesterday with the st. patrick's day activities and so forth. there are some of those days, and when they line up on friday, chuck, you know the rhythm around this place. we often are in a heightened sense of alert because fridays across administrations tend to be newsy days. and as we're getting sort of this time of day and -- >> and i know. >> and we've been given a lid but it doesn't always hold. so we have not seen the president today. >> kelly o'connell at the white house. i think it will be a busy

weekend. thank you. i'm joined by mark louder, a special assistant to president trump and the press secretary to vice president pence and now out of the white house but he's a spokesperson for the trump-pence political operation and on the trump 2020 advisory board. you could speak to anything officially is what i could do. so let me start with this. does the president like having this unsettled environment around him? >> i think the president -- and i've seen it in action. he likes to have the staff competing with ideas, defending their ideas, their positions. >> that way he sees all sides of all of the issues and then makes his decision and it is time for everybody to execute. >> and is there a point where it does become demoralizing. you left in september of '17 and you were there while bannon, pricer, comey, gork -- i'll leave comey out. so you have been there when there is churn. i get the competition for ideas. but is there a point it becomes

demoralizing. >> i think as long as the staff feels like they are contributions are still mattering and really -- i can't say the number of times we would leave the office usually after dark and you would go home and turn on the news and talk to your family and see the stories of the chaos. but you are so ins lar and focused on the task at hand, whether it is tomorrow's meetings, whether it is the trade mission next month, or something along those lines, you become very task oriented and then kind of surprised you when you see the outside commentary on it. >> i want to ask you about -- some axios reporting -- i refer to it a little bit there kelly o'donnell, apparently the chief of staff had an off the record with reporters and axios was not in it and they got reports of it. where john kelly said the president's conversations with outside advisers who then perhaps talk to members of the press have helped stir this perception. fair? >> the president talks to a lot of people. and he talks to them -- at all times during the day.

and many people still go on and you talk. i do think he likes to make sure he keeps his staff on his toes so you are working to deliver the next message, the next policy idea and when you are reading about things -- i always try to tell people in all walks of life, not just at white house, when you worried about those things, control what you can control and that is doing best job you can. >> since you worked for vice president pence -- there is something interesting here in both vice president pence and the defense secretary jim mattis. they have stayed out of the president's cross hairs. they also -- what they have in common is they've kept their head down. is that -- is that the model of how to survive in a -- in the way trump likes to manage? >> i think as long as you are providing your counsel pro private and you execute and keep your head down and that is the vice president's motto, what are we doing every day to advance the president's agenda and take the next policy step or about the politics on 2018 or going

around the world, i think secretary matt is is very much the same mold. >> it does seem those that pop the head up find trouble. >> the key is to continue to promote the president agenda and that won't waiver with the vice president or secretary matt is. >> how would you describe why the president wants an overhall of his national security team. i know there is a framing of this as just -- but there is some -- there is a pattern. heed -- he said he wasn't happy with tillerson and made that clear particularly on the issue with iran. it is clear he and general mcmaster don't always see eye to eye on policy and general kelly -- that is his national security team. what is he looking for from a national security team that he is not getting from tillerson and mcmaster and kelly. >> i won't say he's not getting it because i don't know if they are not providing that, but what he wants is to people to give him solid ideas and options and the thing remarkable about the

president was that he wanted things done yesterday. and asking why didn't we do this yesterday. and so moving at the pace of washington, d.c. especially in some cases, especially in the national security foreign policy apparatus, can move very slowly and deliberately and he's more of a make a decision and then vet it and move on. >> is the issue then with his staff more about process than it is policy? for instance on the trade deal, he seemed to be frustrated by the process and finally said forget it, i will announce it and you guys figure it out? is that an example. >> it could be. i think he's very focused on that feeling of what he said -- when it comes to tariffs, that is something he talked about on the campaign trail and very committed to delivering on those promises and while he'll hear all sides of the argument and he will negotiate and he will use that as leverage to make sure that we are getting the best trade deals possible, whether it is with the european union, china, canada and mexico, this is something he told the voters

will would do and he wants to deliver on that. >> what is different about the president trump you observed in the first two or three months an the president you enact with now? >> i think the biggest thing is the same for everyone in the white house. the first two or three months, everything is new. you are figuring it out for the first time and you do have access to some of your predecessors, of multiple administrations that will help you figure out some of the nuts and bolts but your experiencing it all from the first international trip to the first state of the union and the first all of these are brand-new. so you figure out how to keep everything running and now you have your footing. you are getting in there and now you know you have the basics done. now we can dig in further to the policy. >> is it fair to say this -- this round of staff shake-up then that is coming, perhaps or not, our experience is it is more likely to come, is it about him -- he's personally comfortable in his footing so now he knows what he wants. is that how we should read the changes, the people he has in there, these are the people he's

much more comfortable with than the first round. >> i don't want to disparage anyone already there but we are seeing his customizing his team for the task at hand. so as we face now challenges into north korea and the iran deal coming up and very shocking and disturbing allegations coming out of russia right now, he wants to make sure that he has his team whether it be with the new -- secretary of state, with the director of the cia, in place speaking with his voice, knowing exactly what he wants to do. and then getting -- and moving forward from there. >> you are on the 2020 advisory board and part of the trump pence political operation so your read -- most republicans view it as a big negative and the president is trying to deflect, wait a minute, i think i helped, i didn't hurt. is that really your assessment or do you think -- you have a karl rove who believes the president's presence did more

for democratic turnout. >> i think we might be overanalyzing the broader tea leaves and there were local issues in the race that i think is very high union membership in that district. the previous republican -- >> scandal. >> he had long time ties to labor. and so did conor lamb, where rick saccone had a history in the state legislature of opposing union -- >> and in pennsylvania republican are prolabor so you think his anti-union background cost him -- >> i think including the fundraisi fundraising as peck but i don't think he is the right match for that district. >> do you take any nervous bs -- nervousness away from this. >> but raise money and knock on doors an do the basic blacking and trackling and the rnc and the nrcc cannot come and save every single person, you have to do it yourself. >> the president of the united states didn't like when the rnc -- he thought the rnc was

meddling in the presidential primaries. why is he getting involved in senate primaries in nev nevada. >> i believe this is the best chance to keep the senate seat and take the house seat by having -- >> will he get involved in more primaries, clearing the arizona or the mississippi field -- >> i think he will take a look at it on case-by-case basis. this is another race that tarkainan could get into with the benefit of both of them if they win. >> mark lotter, former special assistant to the president and now on the side and probably liking that some days. thank you very much. up ahead, could the russians shut down our nuclear grid or power plants if they just simply press a button. we'll talk about that coming up. who were sure of it.

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welcome back. tonight in an international

addition of meet the midterms voters are heading to the polls on sunday in russia to elect a president to a secure term. polls show a candidate in the lead, the current president and former prime minister and kgb intelligence officer putin. his closest rivals are the community party candidate and an ultra nationalist candidate. both more than 60 points back. two prominent rivals will not be on the ballot. bor boris nemtsov and another convicted of embezzlement which he contests. this is all about expectations and turnout and the kremlin is aiming for the normal turnout level of around 70% to show the results as a mandate for president putin. anything lower is viewed as putin losing support inside of russia. so to boost turnout, putin is meddling in his own election. he's hitting the stump to promise what we do here,

spending and beefed up nuclear arsenal and infrastructure but the date is designed to highlight his resume. march 18th, the date russian exed crimea. a second round will be held in two weeks. but it is safe to start printing those putin 2024 long sides. more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds.

a hilton getaway means you get more because you get a break on breakfast get an extra day by the pool get to spend more time together get more from your spring break getaway with exclusive hilton offers. book yours, only at hilton.com welcome back. news is not supposed to stop on a friday. we know that. so let's bring in the panel. joshua johnson and erin guerin and dan bowls from the washington post. joshua and i are the only ones here not employed by mr. bezos. >> that day will come. >> dan, it is a little after 5:00 and i think the most surprising thing today is that he didn't make staffing news.

but this -- we say everything is unprecedented and -- but try to put this in perspective. >> well, we say it at the end of every week. we never have quite seen a week like this and every week is the same -- all over. >> the same story, but different intensity. >> and it is surprise and chaos and head faints and all sorts of things. i have to say, i'm not entirely surprised that today has been somewhat quiet. given what happened last night which is what our colleagues posted the story that he decided mcmaster was going to -- >> do you think your story -- this is one of the -- where they decided not to do it just because it was reported? >> well i think what happened was the reporting forced them to say, no, that story is not quite right. because earlier the president had been saying fake news stories about how much turmoil there is. this story was -- was well reported and once it was posted

they had to come back and say no, no, no. >> and one thing i remind people, most trump reporting is accurate the second it is reported. but after that, you don't know. because things do change. he talks to one group of people and he may tell somebody else something else. >> and we've run into this many times where two things are true. because he tells somebody something and -- or many people the same thing and then we do our reporting and we talk to the people he talks to, we talk to people at the white house and yes, he said this. but he also said the opposite to someone else, maybe in the same day, maybe in the same five-minute conversation. and so that means that we -- we sometimes get kind of stuck where we've -- we have a well reported story and a well reported anecdote that something happened and then it gets blown up. but the serious side of that is that sometimes his own staff doesn't fully know what -- when he has made a decision. they get taken by surprise.

certainly the north korea deciding on the spot to accept the summit is one example. the very, very sudden firing of rex tillerson is another that had been -- >> james comey, he talks about firing him but the staff stopped believing it. >> and he'll pull the trigger and catch them off guard as well. >> joshua, personnel becomes policy. i think instead of looking at this as a crazy shake up, there is a pattern here too. tillerson, mcmaster, kelly. these are the three people on supposed one -- one got fired and two others -- well that is his foreign policy team. those are the folks that are, quote, always known in some form, we report as restraining him. that is what he's pushing back against. and i think we probably ought to focus on it that way. >> restraining him, yes. contradicting him, perhaps. they can't counter mand him because he is the president of the united states but even in the remarks he made on tuesday

when he was about to go to san diego, he talked about how i like rex tillerson and we didn't see eye to eye and he'll be happier now and how he and mike pompeo, the current cia director see more eye to eye. it is kind of clear that -- and don't think this should be a surprise to anybody -- that the trump administration will resemble the trump organization in the way that he runs it. he doesn't -- he does not like to be counter manded and likes to be in charge. he likes to keep everybody in suspense and said as much in the past. i will keep you in suspense. i feel in a way like as a journalist, i haven't learned anything this week. this is the exact same donald trump we knew from the apresent -- apprentice. i'm not trying to be flippant. >> but it is true. >> and for the core of the president's base this week just the way they wanted it when they vote for him. >> and i think the president is happy. mark lotter said the president is comfortable with this. we're not comfortable, washington is not comfortable, those in the west wing aren't comfortable but he is.

and the only thing that making him uncomfortable are the people around him. >> and i think that word is very important in terms of the personnel changes. he talked about rex tillerson, i like him but we didn't see eye to eye but then out -- in the same conversation he said larry kudlow, who he had not quite announced at that point was -- who he was picking, we don't always agree on things but we get along very well. he gets a long with mike pompeo. there is a comfort level and clearly seemingly a comfort level with somebody like larry kudlow. there wasn't with rex tillerson. there hasn't been with mcmaster. i think -- >> and kelly relationship is unclear. at times it seems like he is developed a rap ort and at times i'm not sure. >> i'm dubious. >> are you? >> yeah. the kelly things seems to go back and forth. he's fine and not fine. the president likes him and doesn't like him. but on pompeo, that is something that pompeo worked on very hard.

he is not -- the cia -- >> he was strategic. >> running the cia is not a policy job, it is a practitioner job and he figured out a way to make it both and to get the president's ear and to essentially get around tillerson and be more acceptable to trump. >> and i wonder if we need to go a step -- and i don't know if we need to go a step beyond the president being comfortable with this. i'm beginning to think the president thrives in this. this is the environment that he needs to operate. >> i agree, absolutely. >> and i keep going back to the apprentice, but think about the apprentice and the way it is structured. this idea of making people watch the season finale and tune in for every step. some of the commentary is like listening to people on espn comment about games that never will be played but you keep watching and something about the way the policy moves in the white house and the people following the twitter feed on a friday night for god's sake. i think it speaks to the way the president needs to operate. the most damning thing that could be done at this moment is to deny the president a block

coverage for 24 hours. then the white house will change. >> that is true. there seems to be a formula for surviving in the cabinet. keeping your head down and matis and ciao and doing tv that makes him look good. that is kellyanne conway's recipe for surviving or make liberals angry, scott pruitt at the epa. if you don't do those things you may not survive. >> you may have found the formula but that is a pretty clever way of thinking about the way he operates. that may give too much credit to the kind of impulsive nature of him and what he is willing to tolerate and not willing to tolerate and i think we'll have to see how far beyond kind of the mcmaster issue this cabinet shake-up actually goes to get a better idea. >> i think that you mentioned matis and he's in a interesting place right now. >> i wouldn't like to be a fly

on his brain. >> but they were -- they were a duo and matt is gave -- >> they were supposedly a trio. >> yes. but -- right. when he was at dhs. but once he left and became chief of staff and it was mattis and tillerson making the same argument but mattis could give him cover because tillerson didn't -- but when mattis said he cou he could echo and do what women do in meeting and give resonance to what other people could do. and mattis still holds the same views and will be alone. >> and keep in perspective, there are fires and firings. secretaries of state have tended to be more long tenured than rex tillerson was. even the last four years as secretary of state and with the north korea talks coming up, i think he's firing is much more significant. but presidents have the power to do this. he gets to set his own staff. it is the kind of firing that makes this so significant. >> it is. rex tillerson contributed to

this. i think in fairness. everybody -- but rex tillerson miss managed his way out of this job. stick around. before we go, though to break remember the life of a pioneer on capitol hill. congresswoman lor he's slaughter, the first female chair of the house rules committee and one of the longest serving democrats in history. she was in the middle of serving her 16th term. she won the seat back in 1986. speaker ryan called her tough, unfailingly gracious and unrelenting and fighting for her ideas. louis slaughter, a true trail blazer was 88.

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all eyes are on the white house this weekend and that twitter feed, including ours at "meet the press" will be tracking possible west wing and cabinet shake-ups as they go along. and plus what happened in pennsylvania stay in pennsylvania. we'll break down the impact of the pa 18 election and if it is sunday it is "meet the press" on your local nbc station. we'll be right back. little rascal to your patio. so, draw the line. one spray of roundup® max control 365 kills to the root and keeps weeds away for up to 12 months. because patios should be for cooking out and kicking back. draw the line with roundup®. trusted for over forty years. ♪ ♪

with pg&e in the sierras. and i'm an arborist since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the drought we've doubled our efforts. i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. welcome back. the u.s. is facing threats from russia, on not just one or two but three different fronts. we already knew about russian interference in our elections and on social media and now the trump administration is accusing them of targeting the power grid going back two years after the announcement of sanctions for meddling and the cyber attacks.

they are accused of trying to enter critical infrastructure like power plants and they successfully accessed some of the networks. it is not the first time russia is accused of messing with the energy. ukraine has suffered multiple power outages believed to be the result of cyber attacks from russia. they happened in the middle of winter. one for six whole hours. but is there much the trump administration can do to respond to something like this even if it could potentially happen here. joining me now is clint watts. you know him as a former fbi special agent and a national security analyst. good to see you, sir. >> good to see you. >> all right. the -- how can the united states government respond to this threat and can they respond beyond anything other than more sanctions? it seems as if, and we've gone through this before, we've tied our own hands when it comes to cyber.

>> yeah. we are vulnerable. the biggest problem america has in this new cyber space is that we have more vulnerabilities than any other country because we rely on it more than any other country. and we've never built these systems out to be secure. even further, we have probably the best offensive cyber capability in the world. it seems like by most accounts that is true. and yet we don't ever actually use it. and because the one thing we do know about this is you can't control the collateral damage. we've seen both with the russian cyber attacks with black energy and the one you were talking about with the ukraine -- and the attack from last summer. this had massive class ral damage around the world and i'm sure the united states doesn't want to do that in the case of russia and in terms of a strike back and therefore it leaves us vulnerable and almost no options in terms of the cyber landscape in terms of a counter attack. >> if the president said all right, we have to tighten everything up and we built this huge infrastructure without security at the same time we're

now trying to layer the security in there. we've got a secure our elections, we have to secure infrastructure, we got -- to somehow figure out the social media issue in a way that both is constitutional and doesn't destroy our democracy, do we have the tools to do this right now if the president said let's baton down our own hatches here? >> no. definitely not. i think i it was evident last summer at the aspen, tom bossert who has this in his portfolio said they would protect what is known as dotgov but dotcom they could not protect. and there is no real plan moving forward. i'm not sure anyone in government really knows what to do and they definitely don't have the capability to do it and we've talked before on this show about election infrastructure. that is a very simple thing we

can pick. something extremely important in 2018 and beyond. and yet we've seen just minimal moment in terms of that in terms of critical infrastructure defense. and so for whatever reason, really the obama or the trump administration, we made little progress in terms of cyber defense. >> you hinted at this, but i was struck by a quote that the fire eye chief executive officer kevin gave to our colleagues at cnbc saying the reality is if all of russia's cyber weapons wednesday gent us and all of our cyber weapons went against russia, he said they would win. now you just said we have the best offensive capabilities going. but obviously we're vulnerable. >> right. >> do you accept his premise. >> yeah. we just have more to lose. yeah, we have so much more to lose than the russians do. we could hit their systems but their economy is not dependent on an internationet economy. we now in our house is internet of things. everything is tied to the

internet and so any massive attack against us will be far more devastating than anything we can do against them. >> it sounds like -- it sounds like we need a deep -- a de-tech in some areas. it is clear on the election front the easiest way to secure the election is to -- just basically unplug them all. go back to paper ballots. >> right. it is really about resiliency and planning. and we would say, in the military we say dense and death. do we have a back-up plan and in the military just a few years ago started going to the model and it is ironic that it was general mcmaster who said we need to train for warfare -- hybrid warfare like in ukraine. that is what he was preparing the u.s. military and for what happens if we lose our technical systems due to cyber attack or electronic warfare, what will we do. as a nation we need to think about that. during the sony attack which north korea did against the company, they knocked their e-mail -- their phones and everything out to where that company was functioning with

runners. physical human beings running around with messages. so we need to be thinking about this all the way through our companies and resilience in our infrastructure because we are now growing up with a generation that is never gone 30 seconds without wi-fi in their life. we are vulnerable both in terms of our business but also emotionally in terms of how we handle this. >> and it just seems as if we have no -- we have no weapon here to push back at putin. no way of making him think twice before doing this, do we? >> i think there is one way we could do it. what we don't want to do is do what russia does to us back to them. if it is in terms of social media, we're violating our civil liberties where we are undermining our values. if it is with cyber attacks we're hurting innocent people. but there are two angles which we've seen in a really do put fear in putin. one is oligarchs, the more we put pressure on sanctions the more that is pressure back on putin to pull back on his

actions. the second is activists. we -- you mentioned vul ny and if we pursue like we used to during the cold war, bring about a democratic system and bring people -- work for the russian people, to help push this regime away, that will put pressure such that we can then negotiate with putin on a one-on-one basis and say we need you to push back on your information warfare and if return we'll be more measured in terms of how we handle your financial constraints and also with activists. so i think there are measures but our president doesn't want to pursue them. >> because the pursuing would be directly -- you have to personalize the attack is what you are saying. target putin? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> and with that the president has to step -- step forward -- yes. >> clint wats, i have to let you go. i have to say, you're back drop being in key west, florida, i don't know why you brought a

tie. i appreciate it for our viewers. and take that off and go enjoy key west. >> i'll be in swim shorts in ten minutes. up ahead, a democratic party suit 50 years in the making.

this. is. lobsterfest. at red lobster with exciting new dishes like dueling lobster tails and lobster truffle mac & cheese. classics like lobster lover's dream are here too. so enjoy these 10 lobsterlicious dishes while you can because lobsterfest won't last. welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with the democrats idea all they need to do to win back working class white voters is to find another bobby kennedy. that is all. well it was 50 years ago today

in 1968 that kennedy announced his candidacy for president. just four days after senator eugene mccarthy crippled president johnson's chances fozs for re-election by coming in seven points of the new hampshire primary. >> i want to seek new policy and close the gaps that now exist between black and white and between rich and poor, between young and old. i run for the presidency because i want the democratic party and the united states of america to stand for hope. >> in his campaign, kennedy famously appealed to not only black and latino voters but to working class whites. many of whom were supporters of the segregationist george wallace. kennedy was against the war but talked to blue clolar whites. that idea of replicating the magic is not new. we heard it after 2000 that

maybe john edwards could be the next jfk and after dukakis was clobbered by bush and then in 1992 when clinton won, balancing the policy with tough on crime measures. we're searching for the next kennedy and reagan and will it soon be next obama. as the scholar richard colinberg writes from the century foundation, kennedy's successful strategy was liberalism without eliteism and populism without racism. that does sound like a winning strategy if it were only that easy. we'll be right back. polident is the fact that it's very, very tough on bacteria, yet it's very gentle on the denture itself. polident's 4 in 1 cleaning system consists of 4 powerful ingredients that work together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. it kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and it helps to remove stains.

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was she threatened in any way. >> yes. >> was they she threatened physical harm? >> yes. >> can you tell us whether it came from the president directly, the physical threats? >> i'm ghot not going to answer

that. >> will you deny that the president of the united states threatened your clients. >> i will not confirm or deny. >> with a smile. that was stormy daniels's attorney michael avenatti saying his client was threatened while saying his client was threaten ed if she went public with her story. >> have we handled the stormy daniels story? we've talked about t i guess we're handling it a little bit. the difficult thing to remember is that ultimately a lot of what we've talked about with stormy daniels and with the mueller investigation is about the potential for blackmail. the idea that our sitting head of state would have information about their past that could be used as any kind of leverage is dangerous. it's a threat. the salaciousness of the stormy daniels story, men in creepy --

the salaciousness we let go and focus on the fact that a person has an allegation against the president that may involve something seedy that could lower the standing of our nation, that could involve violation of campaign finance laws based on the way that the money is dispersed. that's the issue. physical threats, of course, are also a problem, especially if she's alleging something against the president. but i try to kind of ignore the seediness, especially because if this is a woman who has made an allegation about a man in a position of power, regardless of what her life is, or her line of work is, that still has to be taken seriously, especially if there are federal laws involved. >> anne guerin it does seem as if stormy daniels is getting all the benefit of the doubt and the president is getting none. it's quite the little meatball to leave out there that her attorney did this morning and has done so in subsequent

interviews to put that charge out there. it does lead to -- why today? why wasn't that part of the initial like push? i have to admit, that just sends off a little bit of a weird -- >> i don't know. he's certainly having a moment, making a lot of rounds. the white house is sticking with its blanket denial and referring questions to the press's private attorneys. this is one that the white house is powerless to make go away. in their world, like that is the worst thing. they can -- a million distractions and they can throw up a lot. they cannot make this go away. >> i agree with you. i think what her lawyer did today raises questions that need to be answered by them. >> yes. >> on their part. >> and in a sense we need to

push them on it. as he is now making the rounds, he needs to be pushed much harder to, in essence, show the evidence. what is the evidence? >> he could make charges and hide behind the court case right now. >> it's like any lawsuit. you could put anything you want into an allegation or lawsuit. that doesn't make it real, that it happened. i'm not saying -- i'm not judging what did or didn't happen. i'm saying to make an accusation like that is very, very serious and needs a follow-up. >> while serving as president. that's the implication. >> exactly. >> all right. i want to pivot quickly to the president playing political king maker. but using his political capital. >> yeah. >> anne, he used his political capital today to purge a field in the nevada senate for a guy who, dean heller, has been struggling to figure out do i hug the president or not? >> if not the most one of the

most endangered republicans who is up. unusual in several ways. the president doesn't seem to be that interested usually in the ground-level mechanics. and there's a backstory, too, he apparently made this decision on wednesday and, you know, cut -- >> cut him loose? >> you will do this, right? and then tweet sent today. lo and behold dean heller said brilliant idea. thank you, mr. president. i'll do exactly as you say. so, you know, he's now hugging the president or the president is hugging him. >> i kind of love this story in a way because, you know, if we look at what else happen this had week with rex tillerson and mike pompeo, who is up to be the next secretary of state, every vote in the senate really, really counts. you've already got rand paul, who says he's not digging either mike pompeo or gina haspel to be head of the cia. every single vote in the senate is really, really crucial.

it takes this race that, as we said, is already ten use and the president is exerting his influence on it, this makes a lot of sense to me. i'm looking for more of this in the future. >> great point. the president needs every republican senator right now to just survive '18. thank you very much. how do you spell fun? it's definitely not c-i-a. discover card. customer service! ma'am. this isn't a computer... wait. you're real? with discover card, you can talk to a real person in the u.s., like me, anytime. wow. this is a recording. caller: really?

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in case you missed it there will soon be a new cia chief. that had the mtp daily team poking around the website. found something interesting, bit underwhelming. cia kids' zone. yes. on their website is a cia kids' zone. click on that tab on the upper right part of the menu. see. you can tell it's the kids' zone because of the small thumbnail picture of generic-looking children. doesn't that look like fun? here in the kindergarten through fifth grade section you can do fun kid things like download the official cia brochure. the real fun begins when you go to the game section. check out this nifty decoding game. can you decipher the code? here is a hint. z equals a, plus equals one. tilda equals 10.

what? entertaining children is not the primary goal of the central intelligence agency. for kids' zone, come on. dress up your website, cia. make it more kid friendly if you want a kid zone. we here at mtp daily are here to help. cia kid zone, it's as much fun as -- redacted. we'll be back monday with more mtp daily f it's sunday it's "meet the press" on your local nbc station. good luck with your brackets. "the beat with ari melber" begins now. >> great show, we'll be watching sunday. tonight the white house is facing mounting questions about whether a potential witness was, y yes, physically threatened in order to create a contract to keep her silence. this is a big and unusual story. and the development is coming. and, of course, the