my thanks to philip bump, ab stoddard, michael steele, and phillip rucker who was here earlier. that's going to do it for us this hour. i'm peter alexander. "mtp daily" starts right now. >> thank you, my friend. we're both wearing the washington uniform today. >> if it's tuesday, we now have a republican senator saying firing bob mueller would be an impeachable offense. tonight, the anti-firing squad. >> there's not even a consideration. >> more republicans are warning the president, keep bob mueller in place. plus, big data, big questions. how senator on both sides of the aisle are uniting to hold facebook accountable on its user profile practices.

>> what's being done to stop it from happening again. >> and inside the texas serial bombing investigation. >> the bombings in austin are terrible. local, state, and federal are working hand-in-hand to get to the bottom of it. >> this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. well, good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." buckle up. it's been a wild day of headlines involving russia, the president, vulnerabilities in our election system, bob mueller's probe, facebook, and the trump campaign's data operation. all of today's headlines, though, have one thing in common. they are seemingly alarm bells involving the integrity of our free elections and the foundations of our free democracy. so let's dive in. the president spoke with russian president vladimir putin today and he told reporters that he

congratulated putin on his election, put that in quotes, victory. and that he's going to sit down with putin real soon. the president did not bring up russia's election meddling. he did not bring up russia's poisoning of a former spy just days ago. he did not criticize putin much at all. and he would not answer questions about potentially firing bob mueller. now, we've seen the president dramatically escalate his attacks on mueller. and today, we saw republicans dramatically escalate their warnings not to fire him. senator orrin hatch said ousting bob mueller would be, quote, stupid. speaker paul ryan warned the president that, quote, no one is above the law. and then there was senator lindsey graham. he actually warned of impeachment. >> if the president fired robert mueller, do you think that would be an impeachable offense? >> probably so, if he did it without cause, yeah. to stop the investigation without cause, i think, would be a constitutional crisis. >> have you told him that specifically, senator graham, so that he hears it from

republicans? do not fire bob mueller. >> i think i -- i think i just did. >> okay. >> folks, that's a republican warning president trump about impeachment if he ousts mueller. that's no small thing. that's a big deal. as republicans sound the alarm about protecting the russia investigation, the senate intelligence committee is also trying to sound the alarm about russian meddling and the security of our 2018 midterm elections. and again, some of the loudest warnings today came from republicans. >> they will continue their efforts to undermine public confidence in western democracies and in the legitimacy of our elections. >> the last time it was the russians. it may not be the russians next time. they have set a pattern that others can follow. >> if you've got intent, you've got capability, then you've got a threat. >> this story continues to metastasize. the threat of russian interference has raised many questions about social media platforms getting hijacked to

influence elections. not just in this country, everywhere. and right now, enemy number one on capitol hill in a bipartisan way is facebook. there are growing calls for the ceo, mark zuckerberg, to testify which comes amid serious allegations that facebook was essentially asleep at the wheel when the data firm used by the trump campaign, in this case, cambridge analytica, improperly harvested data from 50 million users. seemingly, to help it target voters. and there are growing calls for cambridge analytica to testify before congress, too, particularly after undercover video from britain's channel 4 showed cambridge's ceo, alexander nix, talking about using bribes and sex workers to entrap politicians. and today, there's new undercover video showing nix bragging about his work for the trump campaign. >> have you met mr. trump? >> many times. >> all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the district campaign, television, and our data

informed him of the strategy. >> cambridge has denied any wrongdoing. they say the video was unfairly edited, but after this latest report from channel 4, they did decide to suspend their ceo and to launch their own internal investigation. and speaking of investigations over in the senate, there's now a bipartisan effort to demand hearings involving both facebook and cambridge analytica. this comes as officials from facebook have begun privately briefing members of congress about the matter. so you've probably got a lot of questions. so do i. hopefully, we have two senators here, they're teaming up in an effort to also get some answers, because they have questions, too. it's republican senator john ekennedy of louisiana and democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. senators, welcome to the show. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> all right. before i dig into facebook and all of that, i want to ask you both, individually, this reaction to lindsey graham calling the firing of bob mueller an impeachable offense. senator kennedy, do you see it that way? >> he hasn't been fired.

i mean, before, chuck, we get all mooged up, i think we need to wait to see what happens. look, i think the president said in his tweets the president likes to think out loud, as the president said earlier today. the president clearly grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. that's his management style. but he hasn't fired mueller. i don't expect him to fire mr. mueller. >> okay. >> the president's lawyer said sunday night that he wouldn't fire mr. mueller. and i don't think mr. mueller will be fired. i think mr. mueller ought to be allowed to complete his investigation. now, if that changes, i'll be glad to do a deep dive into it. but until then, we're just speculating. >> all right. senator klobuchar, where are you on this? >> bewell, i think what senator graham was talking about is if the president breaks a law, and a law says, a rule says was put in place after the saturday night massacre when richard nixon fired a bunch of people in the justice department, the law

says that you have to have for cause to fire a special counsel. and in this case, rod rosenstein has testified under oath that there isn't cause to do that. and i agree with senator kennedy, that you should allow counsel mueller to do his job. and i think what senator graham was referring to is what the law is. that it can be an impeachable offense if someone breaks the law. >> all right. let me move to facebook. they were supposed to be up on the hill, briefing a lot of you, today and tomorrow, have either one of you been briefed today by facebook? or have you both been? >> i haven't been. and i think it's important that we're briefing people. but you know, they've sent their lawyers and their lobbyists up here before. and we think with a breach this big, 50 million people, you should have the ceo before the committee. >> well, and you guys can demand that, but your committee chair is not there yet. senator kennedy, what can you do to convince senator grassley to do this? >> well, senator grassley

marches to the beat of his own drum. i'm going to be as persuasive as i can. look, we've seen the headlines the last few days with cambridge analytica, but the issue is bigger than cambridge analytica. i think facebook is a fine company. but let's face it, they're no longer a company. they're a country. their power is massive. and we're in a brave new world here. i've got a new questions for facebook. i want to know to what extent, if any, when we're on facebook and i go on facebook a lot, we're really seeing a contrived world made up by facebook algorithms. you know, sort of like truman and "the truman show." >> wow. >> i want to know to what extent, if any, facebook has been abusing our data. not being a good steward of our data. and the ultimate question, chuck, it seems to me is how can

we preserve the good things about facebook, and there are some good things, while at the same time combatting what appear to be abuses. >> senator klobuchar, why do you think it's been so hard to get mark zuckerberg to testify? because he didn't come up the last time you brought them all up. >> well, i'm sure he doesn't want to be asked the questions that senator kennedy just put forward. by the way, i think we should have two hearings. one for cambridge analytica and figure out what went on there with the russians. but the other one is not just mark zuckerberg, but we've asked for the ceos of all the social media companies. they have set up products that they've made a ton of money on and a lot of their business model is basically building this product with no alarms and no locks on the door and then they act surprised when the bad guy gets in. that's what's happened. and we have a duty to protect the american people and our democracy and ask them, what

happened, how big was the damage, and how are they going to fix it? >> it's complicated, chuck. i think everyone can agree that poison is being spread on the internet. >> right. >> but you quickly get into first amendment issues. the critical question is, what is poison? one person's trash is another person's treasure. >> what is the expectation, though -- i guess, what's the line here. like, look, you can't regulate people deciding on their own to say, sure, facebook, use me all you want. sell my data. is the issue here facebook hasn't been forthcoming at how accessible all of our data is to people? >> okay, number one, they are under a consent decree with the fkc from 2011, where they said that there were privacy issues then and that every violation would be 40,000 bucks. that's a lot of money if you count all 50 million. the reports are the ftc is opening an investigation. so that's not legal, if they violated that. the second thing that's not legal is if there's campaign

finance violations, maybe not by them, but by cambridge analytica or by another campaign or the trump campaign, where they got 50 million records for a few million dollars. any business would love to see that. so there is a number of things. and finally, i would add, if you're going to give away your privacy and your information, we should have rules in place so that you know if you're signing away not just your personal data and your address, but also your friends. and one more thing, chuck. i think we're getting that $385 million for election infrastructure in this omnibus agreement, if there is one. and that would go a long way to help the states. that's the bill with senator langford. >> hey, i've got more money for you, actually, in doing your math. looks like we've got $2 billion in fines. that would be a decent amount of money to put toward election security, as well. >> i don't know how they're going to calculate, but that could be a lot. >> is this who it should be, senator kennedy?

that essentially the only way to get social media firms to police themselves is saying, look, if any of this stuff gets out, you owe the government "x" amount of money? it's how we do super fund cleanups. that's been the super fund site, which is, essentially, pay for it with the industry paying for their mistakes. >> maybe, but i don't think we're there yet, chuck. let me say it again, social media platforms have done a lot of good. but as they've gotten more powerful, we understand the potential for abuse. and what i'm asking are the policy makers from these companies, including but not limited to facebook, to come talk to us and let us talk frankly, straight up, in front of god and country, about the issues. we all know that they exist. i was mildly offended when facebook sent -- and the other companies, sent their lawyers to the first hearing. i don't know what they were paid, but they did a damned good job, because they didn't say

anything. they dodged and weaved and stalled and re-stalled. and we couldn't get much information out of them. and it was a waste of facebook's money and our time. >> and senator kennedy's pretty good at asking questions, if you haven't noticed. >> no, i know he is. >> chuck. so we wants that opportunity. >> we just want to -- we just want to talk. and face, frankly, these issues that have been put in front of the american people. >> both of you have been successful politicians. >> well, amy has, anyway. >> well, you both have. if facebook were a politician, how much trouble would you tell them they were in right now with the american people that, oh, you know, you're not going to win your quote, next election, if you keep behavior like this. it does seem as if they're not quite self-aware of their constituencies being upset. there's the delete facebook stuff. what advice would you give them as politicians?

>> first of all, i think they see what's happening when they look at the -- what happened to their stock in the last -- yesterday, with some enormous decrease. so i think they know it. i don't think they need us to tell us. but i think what their problem has been, and i agree with senator kennedy, brilliant companies, they've given us these products we can't even imagine where we can communicate with friends and family. but what i think, they look at things, it seems like as a pr crisis by day by day by day, as opposed to looking at the business model and realizing, if they are going to make this work and to continue to be strong, they're going to have to want some rules of the road in place. so that we have a way to monitor this and to work with them, so that we don't have these bots bombarding our sites and we don't have illegal ads put there. and i've been really frufstrate that they haven't supported the honest ads act that i have with senator mccain and warner, because that's all we're saying there is just follow the rules of the road that we have for print, media, and tv and radio.

and if they won't do that, how are we going to confront all of this other stuff? >> senator kennedy, have you signed on to her bill? because i'm surprised that facebook hasn't at least glommed on for that. it would be an easy pr move for them. >> i have not, but it's on my desk. >> it's excellent. >> an excellent bill. >> and it's clearly an option for us. but the issues that i think amy and i are raising in addition to cambridge analytica are larger issues that can only be answered with facebook's involvement. now, if they don't want to be involved, this is america. you know, within reason, you can do what you want. but i think congress is probably going to go forward and -- >> i think so. you guys have the subpoena power -- >> they need to be at the table. >> you guys have the subpoena power when you want to use it. it's all up to his chairman if he wants to use it. senators kennedy and klobuchar, it's always nice to have a bipartisan duo on to prabreak d an issue. you guys are great. appreciate it. we'll break down all of russia's developments with tonight's panel. that was just one piece of it.

was that kind of heavy russia day today. be sure to join ari melber coming up in the next hour, we'll take a look at president trump's complex relationship with the justice department. keep it here for a special edition of "the beat" with ari melber. ♪ ♪ adapt supply chains based on trends, tweets and storms. and make adjustments on the fly. ♪ ♪ the ibm cloud. the cloud for smarter business. the ibm cloud. i needthat's whenvice foi remembered

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uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. welcome back. today in "meet the midterms," it's election day somewhere. that somewhere is illinois today. and we're going to find out what spending $65 million on a primary campaign for governor gets you. democratic billionaire j.b. pritzker is behind almost half of that spending as he tries to fend you have attacks on his wealth. then there's bruce rauner, who also faces a tougher than expected primary challenge of his own from a conservative state lawmaker named jeanne ives. they've tried to stir the pot. down the ballot, a socially

conservative kplik congressman is at risk of being ousted. dan lipinski declined to oppose for re-election. from a slate of liberal groups and even a handful of lipinski's own colleagues. we'll be watching the results after polls close at 7:00 local time, 8:00 here in illinois if the polls are true, we'll have two billionaires facing off to become governor of illinois. we'll be back with more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds. ssing... me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers,

including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. welcome back. let's bring in tonight's panel. mark leibovich. danielle pletka, president and msnbc contributor, maria teresa kumar. all right. i think probably the most surprising statement we heard today was lindsey graham agreeing with hugh hewitt that the firing of mueller would be an impeachable offense. that the action itself would be

an impeachable offense, as amy klobuchar laid out, if it was done without cause. that's an interesting new standard that graham wants to set. >> it was a new standard. also a bit of a fuzzy standard. >> i agree. >> you could say it was done in a hypothetical vein. he answered it, you know, if there's cause. so there's a lot of wiggle room there. i think what's striking is taking together all of the -- well, we wouldn't like it, or we would be assured that -- it's very passive language from the republicans. you just have to wonder, why will they not just go a step further and pass some kind of bill, some kind of stopgap that would actually stop it from happening proactively. because there's a pretty good chance, at least based on the amped up rhetoric from the president, that it's going to happen. why wait? >> this seems like a classic washington move, to be put it with the omnibus. you have to do the budget, sneak it in there as a thing, that everybody wouldn't object to. and yes, everybody would be on the record voting on it. >> yeah, but this is washington. what goes around comes around. you have to be very careful that the legislation that you write today isn't going to come back and bite you you know where tomorrow. and i think that's probably what

the republicans have in mind, if they stop trump at this point, does it then put a different president in a different situation? when you governor, according to the guy who's in the white house only, you get yourself in a lot of trouble. >> no, it's true. but it does seem as if there are -- they don't want the fight. i mean, john cornyn all but said it. it needs a presidential signature. is it worth having that fight right now? >> and i think that they have so many things, the only thing in the back of their mind right now is looking to make sure they win the midterm election and they are hanging the by a thread. they want to make sure they keep this president at bay and as happy as possible, because he does turn on them. they could very easily put it into the omnibus and no one could actually hold them accountable. they should. >> danny, the way that the president seems to almost troll everybody in this town when he has phone calls with putin. because i don't know any other explanation for this. >> no, it is. it's trolling, you're right. >> it feels like it is trolling. and it's trolling of the reporters, maybe trolling his

own staff. but they go out of their way to look more suspicious. >> so what i don't understand in this administration is that everything they do, the russian sanctions, you know, said russian sanctions were coming, there were russia sanctions. the president didn't stand up and say, i can't believe we exposed russia sanctions, what rogue in my government did that? he's fine with that. that doesn't happen without the sa say-so of the president. and yet, i think like a 12-year-old boy, he's like, am i bugging you? does that bother you? does that bother you? you don't like that? do you? do you? >> but listen to sarah sanders, let me play sarah sanders today being asked this question about putin's election. and here's what she said. and i want to throw up another statement they put out a couple months ago. take a listen. >> does the white house believe that the election in uggs are was free and fair? >> look, in terms of the election, there we're focused on our elections. we don't get to dictate how other countries operate. what we do know is that putin

has been elected in their country and that's not something that we can dictate to them how they operate. we can only focus on the freeness and the fairness of our elections. >> putin couldn't have written that statement better himself. but here's what the president of the united states, one donald j. trump said in july of 2017 after venezuela held an election. yesterday, the venezuelan people again made clear that they stand for democracy, freedom, and the rule of law, yet their strong and courageous actions continue to be ignored by a bad leader that dreams of becoming a dictator. the united states will not stand by as venezuela crumbles if the maduro regime, the united states will take strong and swift economic actions. i believe that is called getting involved in somebody else's democracy. >> well, part of our diplomacy abroad is actually to make sure that the principles of honest and fair elections are upheld. that's something that we have actually exported. we actually sent people to oversee these elections. and for putin, i believe he won by 73% uncontested. and now there's word -- >> oh, he was contested. >> well -- but there's also word -- >> technically.

>> well, technically -- but there's also words coming out that there was actually ballot stuffing. >> oh, we saw video of it. >> there was film. >> yeah, there was video of that one. >> we had video proof -- >> i've been reading. but so it's clear that he is completely aligned with putin in a completely different way and we don't know. we actually don't know the extent and why. >> i don't -- i really -- i would be willing to agree with you. i just, i don't think that these are the things that motivate trump. >> but when do his actions start to matter here? >> here's the thing, we can have all kinds of fun about the infantal way he's trolling us. but what's the other situation, that there's some kind of wink-wink or worse relationship with russia and he is speaking in some way to vladimir putin or the russian government by way of these statements. because it does send a message that we are with you. >> but hang on, the evidence all dictates that we are not with

them. we came out with the british to condemn the -- >> but what does putin hear when -- there's been this question. what does putin hear when the president himself doesn't reinforce the message? >> i don't -- >> that's what we don't know. >> i suspect that putin thinks that this is some elaborate game in which he's being played by trump. where he's getting sanctions -- >> no. >> or does he think trump's being played? does he think the government's playing trump. >> had any other -- had any other country interfered during our elections, we would basically have been completely livid. we would have actually drawn up some sort of retaliation. there's actually -- >> that's absolutely -- that's absolutely untrue. >> no. but had it been any other president, i think we would -- >> any other president. >> we would have taken it -- >> don't agree. >> we would have taken it completely seriously. the fact that mitch mcconnell, when he found out that there was actual interference in the election back in november and in october and that president obama also recognized that there was some sort of interference and they decided to step aside because they were afraid of what that would look like to the rest

of the american public, that there was interference, that, i would say sis a place we can't o back into history, but we do know there was russian interference. and the fact that we just wink at putin and say, oh, he's okay. >> we just sanctioned putin for interference in our election. that was done by the trump administration. there's been more done in those sanctions, in ukraine, more done in syria. again, i don't want to apologize for donald trump, but -- and i don't know what his thing is. let me be totally frank. >> that's what i'm -- >> why he does this? >> it's just a bizarre -- >> kidisconnect there. >> and we don't seem to be concerned about their lack of democracy in russia. we don't talk about that. >> we haven't been for a long time. >> no, no, that is true. we let this go. and let's remember, we'll pick on smaller countries about this all the time. >> we always do. but if china or russia does it, it's in written form and that's it. >> right. >> well, i mean, they have

always been the nuclear powers that we're trying to pacify. there's a reason why. >> well -- >> our democracy is longstanding and venerable. >> we always call for democracy in countries that we think we can bully. there's some truth to that. anyway, mark, danielle, stick around. up ahead, the search for a serial bomber in texas. there have now been five explosions in the austin area in just a matter of weeks. what investigators may be looking for now and is this bomber almost wishing he were being caught? we'll have more on the other side. okay folks!

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up ahead, inside the search for the serial bomber who is terrorizing austin, texas. we'll have the latest on the hunt for clues. but first, here's contessa brewer with the cnbc market wrap. hello, contessa. >> hello, chuck. u.s. stocks climbing as the federal reserve starts a two-day monetary policy meeting. the dow up 116 points, the s&p rose 4 points, and the nasdaq picked up 20 points. bitcoin prices bounced back following productive discussions at a g-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank ministers in argentina. bitcoin prices jumped towards $9,000 after the press conference. and to amazon, past alphabet today, the parent of google, to become the second most valuable company in the world behind apple. amazon's market value climbed to about $668 billion. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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welcome back. we're following the latest on what police are calling a serial

bomber in austin, texas. another explosion overnight brought the count to five explosions in the austin vicinity in less than three weeks. earlier this morning, a package exploded at a fedex distribution center in texas just outside of san antonio. a source tells nbc news that a the second package was discovered at a fedex facility near the austin airport and is set to be detonated by authorities. now, the packages are believed to have been shipped at the same time and are both bound for austin. authorities are looking for fingerprints at the location. they believe the packages are dropped off. that explosion in texas was the fifth in the austin area this month. the bombings have left two people dead. authorities have linked the previous four bombers to one serial bomber, but have not yet publicly tied the most recent one to the others. joining me now, fromcavanaugh, special agent in charge, an msnbc analyst, and a longtime bomb investigator who worked on the unabomber and eric rudolph cases, both of which seemed

familiar to me when following this one. mr. cavanaugh, it's good to have ow on you on a non-breaking news day. i say this knocking on plastic here. >> right, chuck, it's been rough on citizens for austin for sure in the last couple of weeks. >> let's talk about, the biggest news today is finding a package before it's detonated, before it's been delivered, and you say this is an important piece of investigative work, why? >> well, we don't know exactly how this package detonated in this sorting facility. it might have low ordered, which we call it, a partial detonation, it could have high order detonated. at first we thought they might have had another bomb in tact, they may have another mailing by the bomber. so there's evidence here from those instances, but also, this is the first time we know the bombers hit a commercial area. the first three placed devices were residential area and the greenway. and the commercial area adds

more chance for cameras, witnesses, you know, video surveillance. i mean, we could have a bomber with a hoodie and sunglasses, chuck, as we've had in many other cases, and he could be just a blob, but nevertheless, there's more to glean, he might have had to fill out a form. i think the biggest question i would have has a commander in this is who was the package addressed to? i would want to know that first. and that would try to look at that to get a little insight into the bomber. >> all right, so, what here -- you know, it's interesting, with the unabomber, with eric robert rudolph, they would not be -- it seems like these are all clustered together. i hate to put it this way, but it does feel as if this bomber, it's almost like he's playing a game, he wants to get caught, perhaps. i'm asking you, do you think he's increasing his frequency as we cover it more? >> well, yeah, he's feeding off the power. i think another parallel here, another case i was also on, and

i think there's a real parallel to it is the d.c. sniper. >> yep. >> the tempo of this, the tempo of this and the way the capital region was kept in fear, the killing, the killing, and the purposeful killing at random, is very similar here. the method is a little different. that was a rifle, this is bombs. but the power that the killer gleans is a similar atmosphere. and one thing that was strong there, with chuck, and you'll remember, you lived up there, >> yes, sir. >> is every single citizen is on your side. and the commanders have to leverage that. we leverage that in the sniper case by reaching out, by using citizens to help us. really, it's the -- it was in that case, was the capital region against the snipers. and today, it's the austin region against the bombers. every law enforcement officer, every citizen, against the bombers. that's the strength, you have to leverage that.

so, big break today. who's he addressing the package to? is there video of surveillance? fingerprints, handwriting on the form. this guy, his motive is in front of us. it's power. he's angry at something, chuck. something. and you know, when i say that, it could be legitimate anger. you know, i know people are -- have angry that's just in hair head, he could have been some guy who really got screwed by the system somewhere, and he wants to get that power back. and i don't think he wants to talk now. i think that's a good effort by the commanders, but i don't think that's where he is right now. where he is right now is power. >> it feels like there's a lot of clues here to work, right? you have everybody that has received a package so far. so you're able to start seeing if there's any connections there. you now have an in-tact bomb. you might want to see if he has a signature as to how he makes his bombs. is that fair to say? what can you learn from what

he's -- from the bomb itself? >> yeah, they know a lot already. they know how he fuses it and fires it, they know how he charges it, they know what kind of mixture he uses and how he contains it. they know his design, they know his materials. >> so tdoes that mean they can follow -- they could look up, where could he get these materials and hope that there's at least some of the materials that there's only one or two places to get it? >> right. we've broke many cases like that, i personally have, from labels, stickers, microswitches, batteries, but also, you can have very common materials. it's not always an answer. atf maintains a database called the explosive incidence system that has every bomb in america in the last 50 years in it and they can be compared against it. our forensic lablaboratories. when judge vance was killed in birmingham years ago in a package bomb, that went to his home in birmingham, a federal judge, the return address was another federal judge in atlanta

he knew. and that entrapped him. he opened the device and was killed. when we sent that evidence to the atf laboratory in atlanta, one of our forensic chemists there, lloyd irwin, looked at the bomb and said, i know who made this bomb. we convicted him in 1972 making a bomb just like this. and it was walter leroy moody and we convicted him, fbi, atf, the birmingham police of that case. so we look for all of those things, but really the answer is going to be with the citizens here, a tip, who wasn't home when it was placed, narrowing the timeline of the trip wire bomb. this delivery and this guy's angry, chuck. he's talked about it, he's talked about it, somebody's heard about it. >> you're convinced of that. let me ask you this, what's fedex -- what should they do? how can they help here, since they've been the vehicle? >> yeah, fedex and u.p.s. and the postal service really have systems in place, citizens have to use them. you know, it's great now

whenever i buy something online, send me a tracking number. and anytime i want, i can go on there and they tell me, hey, my box and my auto part is in wisconsin, it's on the way, hey, now it's in kentucky. this is great. i never cared before where the box was, now i want to know all the time, where my box is. but when the box comes, when the box comes, i never pick it up. i've never picked up a box. my kids haven't and my wife haven't. i read the label first. i check the tracking number first. did i order that? who's the shipper? that box will sit on my porch for a long time. so what people have got to do, they've got to understand is you don't take it, don't accept it, don't take any gifts. if you're in austin, don't take any gifts. lamps wi s radios, packages -- >> this is terrorism! you've just described, we're being terrorized. it's a different time, but we're being terrorized. >> all violent crime is terrorism. i think what we have here is a

serial killer, who's a bomber, probably on a power trip, much like the dc sniper. we like to throw out terrorism, but doesn't really make any differences here. the resources aren't going to change anything. everything that's being done, in the joint operation center, atf is using their computerized system to track every single lead. the fbi lays in on that. they have fabulous resources down there. every citizen is on their side. a slight tip, a slight piece of forensics. the bomber is going to have a booby trapped house. and he's going to -- he's going to be very difficult to get, but he'll be caught, we'll see if hee the tries to somehow let the city understand why he's doing that. >> mr. cavanaugh, quite the mystery, hopefully this attention helps law enforcement officials, doesn't just help the bomber. anyway, jim calve nvanaugcavana appreciate it. thanks very much. up ahead, my how the tables have

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welcome back. tonight, i'm obsessed with furniture. not since the battle of the tables at the vietnam peace talks in paris, should the table be round, square, should there be two tables? what about a rhombus. has there been so much talk about a table since ben carson's hud office spent $31,000 for a

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is. time for the lid. the panel is back. all right, guys. we have got a new mississippi senator. and the governor there picked a woman to do this. i think we have a baseball card sort of quickly describing her, cindy hyde smith, she's a former democratic senator, switched to the republican party in 2010. mississippi has never elected a woman to congress. iowa was the only other state that shared that honor until jody ernst won in 2014.

>> kind of a surprising pick. it does throw up a possibility is that chris mcdaniel could primary her. and you would split the vote and you would have a roy moore situation that comes to mississippi. you had that situation possibly anyway, but we'll see. >> governor mitch mcconnell wanted the governor of alabama to appoint a woman this time to make the democratic challenger a little bit more difficult. but she's not well known, and she has a democratic past, which we know in a republican primary can be lethal. >> there's no zeal like the zeal of the converted so she could be awesome. will the republicans not learn a lesson after all of these, after roy moore, at circone.

s >> she starts with lower name recognition than mcdaniel. todd cochran was the other way around, i think that's what makes this -- the profile is the right pick on paper. but this is a tough -- >> i think they're kind of rolling the dice. i think they're basically trying to open up the idea that if they are going to be literally neck and neck when it comes to the n midterm elections, they have to go more to the middle. >> i get what they're doing, the democrat is mike espy, it's been a while since he's been on the ballot, it's been a couple decades, but she is there in case chris mcdaniel is the nominee. >> and chris mcdaniel, between the energized far right that he

would represent, and he obviously has a following from his last primary with cochran. i think if she can get through it it's a pretty is smart move by phil bryant and she has a good chance of winning. >> i'm going to violate my pledge here and ask about stormy and this whole thing, because it is sort of this lawsuit that the president can't shake, danielle. "wall street journal" noted it's been a seven year legal battle between her and michael cohen and now the presidency is involved in it. it's one of those things, when you talk about mueller and russia mueller and russia and this just sits over here and doesn't go away. >> i feel about this like i do about paula jones and all these women. i cannot understand the president constantly returning to this, except that he's sort of notified by this inner

ticker, this fox news thing that he has going on that causes him to not be able to control himself. >> i think that stormy daniels situation is going to come down to campaign finance law. if that brings him gown in h s presidency, that -- >> he himself is not solely driving, stormy daniels and her attorney. >> she's driving the entire thing, every day. >> he's spoken out about it and michael cohen has spoken out about it and they're playing very, very hardball about this. >> apparently he's supposed to do both. >> there's another woman who came from playboy who says she wants to be unbound from her nda. >> what is it about women that trump likes to sleep with women with large boobs? i don't understand? >> that's not the issue.

i think the issue is whether he violate violated --. >> what sort of a flattering thing for trump, it launches him into a sort of '90s values. >> it gives him currency among his base. >> i am scared that the two of you have stumbled on to a truth that i don't know if danny and i want to touch. all right, guys, i'm going to take one more break and loet you guys go home and find owl what i missed. and strangers alik e. - 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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well, in case you missed it, the first lady is making fighting cyber bullies her personal mission. melania trump hosted a meeting from major tech companies on ways to combat online bullying against children. and she was candid. >> i am well aware that people are skeptical of me taking this on and there are many sides to tackling this issue, and i know it will continue. it will not stop me but i will continue to do what is rite. >> he's called marco rubio a

light weight, he's called president obama a psycho, first lady believes children and teens deserve a safe place online. i don't me what he calls me anymore, maybe just sleepy eyes. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. i think you have a big show coming up. we bring you as discussed, a special edition of "the beat" law and orders trump versus the fbi. the deputy fbi director andrew mcccabe. it was a year ago tonight that the fbi dropped that bombshell that the fishbi had an open pro about trump-russia links. donald trump ousted comey within two months and that of course led to comey's announcement.