their identification. so this is a big, big change. what it will do is allow the secretary of defense to evaluate those persons who want to serve case by case. so this will be litigated. already democrats are outraged about it saying this is unfair, even unconstitutional. that happened late friday night capping a week where there was a lot of drama in washington. back in palm beach for the weekend. but no spring break from a turbulent ride in washington. >> i will never sign another bill like this again. >> reporter: friday the president set up a reality show cliff-hanger that put a government shutdown on the table. with a tweeted surprise. i am considering a veto of the omnibus spending bill. a veto? a shock to his own team and party. >> let's cut to the chase. is the president going to sign the bill? the answer is yes. >> the president supports this

bill. >> reporter: the president kept up the suspense for about four hours. then promoted what he called a news conference. >> as a matter of national security, i've signed this omnibus budget bill. >> reporter: making official the $1.3 trillion spending package that fortifies military readiness. >> it increases total defense spending by more than $60 billion from last year. >> reporter: but puts only a down payment on his much-promised border wall. >> it does start the wall. >> reporter: the president is at the center of a storm. shaking up his national security team. general h.r. mcmaster out. conservative hawk john bolton coming in. a change made just as another woman, former playmate karen mcdougal, went public claiming she had a lengthy affair with mr. trump more than ten years ago. add a volatile stock market. the dow plummeted in a reaction

to the $60 billion tariffs on china. the worst week in two years for the index. but more shakeups could come. former chief strategist steve bannon predicts the president may eliminate the most powerful job inside the white house. >> i've actually argued that if general kelly at any time does decide to leave, the president decides it's time for him to move on, i don't believe there'll be another chief of staff. >> reporter: and the president is expected to head back to washington on sunday night. family staying here for spring break. and if you do see lights or hear sirens behind me, that has nothing to do with the president. that is a local traffic incident happening here. so alex, nothing to be alarmed about with the president. we wish whoever is involved in that the best. >> you read my mind. i was going to ask you what the president was doing behind you. but that is not the case. we wish whoever is involved in that accident well as you said. kelly, thank you so much. now back to near the white

house where half a million students and some parents and activists are expected at today's march for our lives. the protesters taking up the rallying cry never again and pushing for gun reform just weeks after the deadly shooting in parkland, florida. let's go to kerry sanders. he's joining me live from there. kerry, you're in front of where all that action is going to be today. what do the students want to see accomplished? do you know what they will define as success from this march and rally today? >> reporter: i think they initially believe the fact that just gathering together is success. consider the fact that these kids are young. they're teenagers who are usually ignored by the adult world. and like another generation during the vietnam war, this so-called mass shooting generation believes that they actually have the ability to challenge the status quo. and so they're going to gather here and in numbers they hope they will at least establish the momentum needed for what they

say is a march for our lives. this has all happened so quickly for the students from marjory stoneman douglas high school. a gunman came on their campus and slaughtered 17. now these teenage leaders are saying enough. inspiring more than 800 rallies nationwide and around the world. and they're bringing their message to washington, d.c., for today's march for our lives. you're going to be out here with 500,000 kids. could you have expected this to happen? >> honestly, as unhumble as this is, yes. i think our generation is sick of having to live through these mass shootings, having to constantly prepare for tragedies like this. >> reporter: and to that end, students turned lobbyists meeting with members of congress like tim kaine. >> so you have started with something that is incredibly powerful around this country. >> reporter: you can't even vote and yet he says you and all of you are doing something that hasn't happened before.

>> well, i mean, i definitely think this generation -- generation z is the generation built on technology. we're all aware of the fact we're capable of making change. >> reporter: a generation that effortlessly uses social media to inspire action. you keep on your phone a running total of teenagers shot. keyshawn uses an app that keeps track. >> the total has been 110. >> reporter: he began watching the alarming statistics after his brother randall was shot and killed. among those in washington today, laurie al hadif. her daughter alyssa killed in parkland. >> she would have been right here absolutely fighting with these kids for common sense gun laws and school safety. >> reporter: as we heard from kelly o'donnell, president donald trump is not here in washington. he is in florida, but he has given the kids here something they can count as a small victory. he tweeted that the justice

department has now been directed to make those bump stocks illegal. those are the stocks on a semiautomatic weapon that can turn them into a machine gun. it is notable, however, during the parkland shooting, it was a semiautomatic weapon, not a gun with a bump stock used there. nonetheless, this is what the kids say they're looking for. they recognize there will be incremental steps towards making their lives safer. and they point out this is not something about making their lives safer on school campuses but just in general in this country. >> yeah. bump stocks were something that became very woefully familiar with in the wake of that las vegas shooting, that's for sure. but you're right. it is a step in the right direction. kerry sanders, good to see you, my friend. let's bring in democratic congresswoman val demings of florida. she's also a former orlando police chief. she joins me this morning just

hours after holding a town hall on gun violence with her constituents last night. big welcome to you this morning. i want to ask you what you heard last night and whether or not there was common ground among all the voices for finding solutions to gun violence in this country. >> well, good morning, and thank you for having me here this morning. we had a pretty spirited town hall last night. one of the things i wanted to do was really give constituents in my district an opportunity to express their views, their homes, and their fears surrounding gun violence and gun violence legislation. so we had a town hall where we heard from both sides. we heard from people who believe that we need to fix our background system, that we need to ban assault weapons, we need to ban high capacity magazines. and then we also heard from gun owners who feel like, you know, in some ways their constitutional rights may be violated. as we heard from people who feel like we should arm teachers in

the classroom. but we also heard from gun owners who said, yeah, they're gun owners and they believe in the second amendment, but they do not believe that we should have assault-style weapons on our streets. so last night was a very good, like i said, spirited and i think productive discussion. we're looking forward to having additional ones and hopefully we can find solutions that work. but one thing was for sure last night there. there is agreement on both sides about doing something about gun violence. >> yours is a unique perspective, ma'am, as you can an elected official now. but you're also a former police chief there. what is your sense of what can actually be done to make a difference as you marry both of these hats you've worn? >> i really believe that a lot can be done. as a police chief, i worked hard to get illegal guns, what we call crime guns out of the hands of bad people, dangerous people,

those who were mentally ill. wi we can have that same agenda in congress if we have the political weal to do so. what i have seen has been disappointing. many of my colleagues, many of those who receive contributions from the nra are in support of doing absolutely nothing. but i'm so proud of the half a million people we see in our nation's capital today. thousands around the state of florida. there'll be thousands here in orlando that will be marching who are not accepting nor tolerating the lack of action. and what is so inspiring about these young people is that they're not going to let it go. they've had the blood of their classmates, their friends splattered on them. that should not happen in american schools. we will be standing with them and supporting them. >> you're right. these kids, my sense is as well with you that they are not going

to let this go. are lawmakers going to let this go? what is the sense there on capitol hill as you walk the halls, go to meetings with your colleagues? is this a sea change now? >> it's interesting the conversations that we have in a public setting with our colleagues versus those in a private setting. whap i can tell you is the colleagues i have an opportunity to meet with one-on-one, i have gone and met with some of my republican colleagues in their offices to talk about finding common ground. they are devastated what has happened in american schools, nightclubs, churches, movie theaters, malls. totally unacceptable. but they are afraid that they will not be elected again. that they will have people within their own party that will run against them.

reminding ourselves why we're there in the first place and we have a direct obligation to protect the people we represent. and to watch mass shooting after mass shooting and do absolutely nothing is unacceptable. however, we have seen some movement. it may be small steps, incremental changes. but we haven't seen that before. so we are encouraged by that. >> well i very much appreciate your candor in talking about your colleagues on the hill and what they are most fearful of when it comes to their jobs. i want to get to what happened last night. there was some breaking news to share that the president now has signed an order banning most transgender troops from serving. i want to get your reaction. because just on thursday i know that you met with representatives from the human rights commission. so your reaction to this news? >> very disappointing, but i think everybody who's paying any attention at all knows that as

the russia investigation continues, the president will use whatever distraction that he has available to take our attention off of mr. mueller and that investigation. with all of the issues that are going on, he has hundreds of thousands of students in his country marching to protest against gun violence, and he's coming up with legislation or a suggestion to keep people who are dedicated servants who want to serve in our military from doing that. it makes absolutely no sense. i think america is not falling for it this time. and enough is enough with that too. >> i do want to talk with you also about the special counsel's russia investigation. you know democrats on the house judiciary committee.

you had a news conference this week and warned do not fire robert mueller. do you think that's what this shakeup on the team is about? >> i really think it is. you know, having worked as a police chief, i've had an opportunity to work closely with prosecutors. but also work indirectly with defense attorneys. and one thing that i do know about attorneys, they're very loyal and very dedicated to their client. the fact that the president's team is falling apart, people are walking away from him. his attorneys are walking away from him i think sends a very strong signal of the russia investigation. look. the bottom line is this. if you're innocent, i think trey gowdy said it last weekend. if you're innocent, then act like it. if the president has not been involved in any wrong doing, then the person he should want most leading the russia investigation is robert mueller.

but i believe as mueller and his team get closer and closer to the truth, we don't know what the truth is but the president certainly does. i think this is a last-minute scramble. but the truth will come out. and the sooner the better. >> democratic congresswoman val demings of florida, thank you for your time on the broadcast. i appreciate it. >> thank you. a former playboy model who says she had an affair with the president goes public with her story. the ripples of her interview next. ush high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. fthere's flonase sensimist.tchy and watery near pollen.

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whcold sore.et you? grab lunch? cold sore. when a cold sore takes over, campho phenique's topical anesthetic plus anti-microbial action soothes pain fast. what's for dinner? meat loaf. campho-phenique on, cold sore pain gone. after we had been intimate, he tried to pay me. and i actually did not take that. >> did he actually try to hand you money? >> he did. he did. and i said -- i mean, i just had this look of -- i don't know. i don't even know how to describe it. the look on my face must have been so sad. because i'd never been offered money like that. >> former playboy model karen mcdougal speaking out for the first time about what she claims

was a ten-month-long affair with donald trump back in 2006. that interview follows a new filing by mcdougal seeking to get out of an alleged contract with national enquirer over the rights to this story. let's bring in zelina maxwell, joe walkens, and rick tyler. i'm going to get to you in a second about what we have forthcoming. but dealing with this particular story and republicans, rick, how are they viewing mcdougal's claims? >> they wish the whole thing would go away. >> i bet. >> you know, this story is sort of complicated. on the one hand, these women signed nondisclosure agreements as contracts now they want to get out of them. you have to question the motivation. but the idea we're talking about the president of the united states with two women who have legal lawsuits against the president over alleged affairs, which as you know the president is denying. >> absolutely. why do you think it's important

to get the truth out about these affairs? or is it? >> i'm not sure it is. we all lived through the bill clinton years with monica lewinsky and the other claims. you know, people -- we still like to think that character matters. some will take the view that people can still be a very good president even though their moral character is out of line. what's surprising is the evangelical community's silence on all of this in that -- because this is ongoing and current. this isn't as if this happened. we love the redeemed, but this seems to be contemporaneous with this presidency. >> zurlina, lots of buildup to stormy daniels' interview coming up sunday night. here's her attorney with new details about what to expect in this interview. here it is. >> the threat was delivered in person. my client's going to describe it in detail on sunday. the american people are going to hear from her. they're going to judge her credibility.

it was very frightening to her. >> was the threat part of the reason she signed? >> i think absolutely. when the president's fixer exerts pressure on you to sign a document, you don't ask a lot of questions. you do as you're told. signed? >> i think absolutely. when the president's fixer exerts pressure on you to sign a document, you don't ask a lot of questions. you do as you're told. >> look, i'm tkpog to reiterate what rick said, trump's team denies the allegations of both affairs with mcdougal and stormy daniels. he referred to the president's fixer. what do you make of that? >> the president often talked about is who is my roy cohn. he wants somebody to intervene and pay off women. the payoffs are important much more so than the alleged affairs. i want to take us back to october 2016. if you recall at the st. louis debate, donald trump's team

brought out women who had mirrored allegations against bill clinton. at the same time they remember doing that in public, they were paying off stormy damns and silencing karen mcdougal. not just the "access hollywood" tape as the reason they were trying to silence the women, but they were trying to distract us if the allegations had come out at that time, they were trying to distract us and point us towards allegations against bill clinton. and i think in the area of me too, donald trump is very much the catalyst for that cultural shift that led us to the me too movement. but i think he also will be held accountable for his behavior because we no longer tolerate the silencing of women. we listen and believe women now. that is a shift that happened in the tenure of donald trump. eventually we will see more women come forward with their stories. >> giving us a big picture

overview and tying it all together for us. joe, we had a judge that ruled against the president by summer zervos. that is going to move forward, a former contestant on "the apprentice". we have the "washington post" with this take on the trifecta. trump's new female accusers may put him in greater danger. like what, joe? what are the potential dangers he faces in. >> well, you know, i'm not so sure i agree with that. all of -- any one of these stories by themselves would normally put an elected official out of business. i have seen more members of congress and former presidents and candidates for the presidency that have been taken out of commission and had their careers ended because of the mention of an illicit affair. he has multiple accusers and very credible ones. karen mcdougal makes for an incredible witness, and so does

stormy daniels for that matter. i don't think any of that touches the president. at the end of the day i think he is impervious to this. the decisions he has made, the fact that these are just for the moment breaking news stories is but in the mix with lots of other breaking news stories, they end up getting lost in the breaking news stories. they keep our attention for a moment but don't ultimately hurt the president, certainly not with his base. >> i want to turn to the drama unfolding around the spending bill yesterday. let's watch a clip from the president's remarks. >> there are a lot of things that i'm unhappy about in this bill. there are a lot of things that we shouldn't have had in this bill but we were in a sense forced, if we want to build our military. but i say to congress i will never sign another bill like this again. i'm not going to do it again. >> should congress take that threat seriously, rick? >> probably not. though he did cause quite a

stir. they were all leaving on easter break. he said he's going to veto the bill. that would have caused the government shutdown. if he vetoed the 1.3 trillion tkhrrbgs i think they would have turned on him. any conservative who signed this bill, in my opinion, that no right to talk about fiscal responsibility anymore. >> is this a win for democrats? >> i think nancy pelosi and chuck schumer certainly come out of this looking good because they were able to get a lot in the bill they wanted. but i also think -- i miss no dra drama obama. i think that the president didn't -- clearly didn't really understand many of the things that were in the bill. he knew based on the people working on the bill and the people in the white house a lot about the bill. but the day he was supposed is to sign it wasn't clear that he

understood some of the underlying policies. he was playing to his base. republicans have been talking about fiscal responsibility, and this bill is the opposite of that. i think the president was in a difficult spot, and he created kaus on and a little bit of unease because he wanted to pander to his base who does not like this bill. >> zerlina, joe, rick, always good to have all three of you on board. now, we will turn our attention back to the epicenter of today's "march for our lives" protest. it is a turnout of half a million expected now. organizers say it is one of more than 800 demonstrations around the world because of the sheer size of this d.c. protest, an actual march is not expected to occur. rather, it will be a rally along pennsylvania avenue. i will head to the site and join

my colleagues for that. outrage and protest over a police shooting. about 100 demonstrators marching last night to the capitol there. they are shouting no justice, no peace. >> shots fired. >> very disturbing video is shows the moment sacramento police fired 20 shots at an unarmed background, killing 22-year-old stephon clark in his backyard. protesters taking to the streets for the second time. joining me is black lives matter, former mayoral candidate as well. let's talk about this in conjunction with the fact that we work the 50e anniversary of dr. martin luther king jr.

when shootings like this happen, the prospect of racial equality, does it feel or seem elusive. >> we know the outcomes are still the same. a third of all the people killed by strangers are killed by a police officer. so the challenges they faced back then are the challenges we face today. there are systems and structure that almost guarantee that the officer won't be held accountable. there is no de-escalation. those things are choices. in the '60s she said we have chosen to build a system that allows the police to do this. it is not elusive as we know the structures, the policy, the police that are allowed to get away with this. it is because the organizers in sacramento were pushing and fighting. the police union contract is not good. california has a bill of rights for police officers that gives them protections that no other citizens get.

>> when you see the body cam video, that in itself can be damning. but then the audio gets turned off. >> the thing about body cameras. and the only reason why we are pro video more not than video, we have seen almost no cases of an officer being held accountable without video. you can see they can manipulate the audio. they don't turn it on. they get slick with it and angle the cameras. that is not what it means to hold police accountable. >> i know you are part of this nbc documentary called "hope & fury." it airs tonight. >> there are two things. one, it's everybody's movement. >> absolutely. you founded it. you're one of the founders. >> many people helped the movement begin. i'm just probably one of the people in the street in ferguson

at the beginning of the movement. what i will say is we were mindful of the fact that we needed to tell stories that were resonating with people. king said here are the structural issues. we're going to tell these stories to point people to how we change the system with the role. this is not about switching places with the oppressor. it is abouteneding oppression. >> what do you hope people take away? >> this is not about one person but many people telling stories altogether. we have new tools now. king couldn't talk to a million people whenever we wanted to. we can because of social media and the internet. so the movement has to grow as people grow. we're in a new time where the movement is growing. that's a beautiful thing. "march for our lives" is an example of people taking to the street. >> absolutely. it's always good to talk to you. and you still have that blue

vest is. that's the trademark. thank you so much. good to see you. all of you be sure to catch "hope & fury" tonight on nbc. we are approaching the top of the hour. this time i will hand over to my colleague ali on location for today's mar"march for our lives rally. i look forward to joining new a few minutes. i will be first person narrative on security is. it may be like an hour. who knows? >> get here soon. i'm looking forward to seeing you, my friend. we will be together the next couple of hours. good morning, everyone. i'm al velshi live on the mall for "march for our lives". it's saturday morning. let's get started. >> half a million people set to rally against gun violence in washingt