approach the 50th anniversary of martin luther king and robert kennedy and joined by martin luther king the third and kerry kennedy to discuss the legacies. that does it for our hour. "mtp daily" starts now with katy tur in for check. >> happy friday. >> happy friday? if it is friday, we're taking the temperature on cold war talk. >> tonight does the recent tough action on russia speak louder than the president's silence? >> in some ways it is as bad as the worst moment in the cold war or close. >> plus rent to own influence. how a d.c. apartment rental deal has epa chief scott pruitt facing heat from the white house. and the growing fury over police shootings as sacramento braces for more protests. >> this is not a local matter. they've been killing young black men all over the country. >> this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now.

♪ ♪ good evening. i'm kate your tour in new york in for chuck todd and welcome to "mtp daily." we begin with what sounds on paper like a chapter out of the cold war. but instead of a president loudly saying tear down that wall, mr. gorbachev, we have a president saying don't agitate mr. putin. would any of this sound out of place against a strategic adversary. the u.s. imposed sanctions on russian entities as punishment for 2016 meddling in the election. then the government expels 60 russian diplomats and demands the russian consoulate in seatte but shut down but notice who announced these moves. the white house. the trump administration. not the president himself. for a president who isn't shy about breaking news on his twitter feed, there remarkably

is not a word about any of those new policies. the president didn't say anything yesterday either after russia had retaliation with diplomatic expulsion at a consolute closure of its own. and the only mention of putin is this phone call to congratulate him on the win. and he said get ago long with russia and others is a good thing, not a bad thing. and they can help solve problems with north korea, syria, ukraine, isis and iran and even the coming arms race. but listen to the trump administration and its officials and you'll hear a tougher message. >> this administration has taken very tough actions against russia. not against the russian people but against the russian government. >> with these steps, the u.s. and our allies and partners around the world make clear to russia that actions have consequences. >> so what is behind the apparent disconnect between president trump's words and his

administration sanctions. officials say it is partly because of hi continued hope for warmer relations with putin and stubborn refuse to be seen as appeasing the media who question his kind words for the russian leader. but he may be more willing to challenge his russian counterpart out of public view after putin claimed that russia has new nuclear capable weapons that could hit the u.s. trump told putin during that controversial phone call, quote, if you want to have an arms race, we can do that. but i'll win. but trump has yet to say anything like that publicly. i'm joined now by michael mcfaul, former ambassador to russia under president obama and a nbc news international affairs analyst. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> how do you make sense of the disconnect between donald trump's words, what he says in public and what the administration is doing with

sanctions and ex pelling diplomats? >> i'll tell you, i can't make sense of it. i want to underscore at the beginning how very strange this situation is. democrats and republicans until the white house had a consistent policy between the president and the administrations, but when it comes to russia policy, the trump administration has one policy and that is the president doesn't seem to want to endorse it. now my theory is that he wants to keep open, as you just reported, as you just talked about the possibility that he could have a break-through if he could just get in a back room with putin, that they could hit it off because they're two strong guys that could get along. i think that is the theory in the back of his head. i just don't think it is working. i think instead he looks very weak in the eyes of putin and the rest of the kremlin. >> is there a scenario where it could possibly work? to play devil's advocate, it is a complicated world we're living in and russia does have

strategic foreign policy in place that they could help us with in terms of what is happening in the middle east and syria and isis. is it a bad idea for the president to try and cultivate that relationship as our administration does enact tougher sanctions? >> no. i don't think it is a bad idea. but it has to be for what purpose. it cannot be for a good relationship with russia and a friendly phone call with vladimir putin. and that is i think where the president has it mixed it. he thinks the goal of his policy toward russia is better relations. a friendly summit with putin. those are means to other ends, other national security objectives and what is striking about president trump is he doesn't talk about the national security objectives, he just talks about wouldn't it be nice to get along with president putin. the question is, for what end? what would we achieve concretely as a result of that reproach

mont. >> this administration said it has been tough on russia, despite what the president might say, it says it has been tough on russia. have they? >> regarding concrete policies, yes. i think there is a lot of continuity between president obama administration and the trump administration. they'll hate that i just said that. but it is true. if you think about the build up of nato, support for ukraine, sanctions against russian individuals and corporations close to the kremlin, all of those things started under obama and they've continued in the trump era. add to that lethal weapons to ukraine. that is doubling down on a tougher policy that the trump people have done beyond what president obama did. and then there back and forth in terms of expelling diplomats and closing the consulate in seattle, that also is a tough policy toward russia. it is just not endorsed by the president himself. >> well some folks, including

mccaffrey say that is because they have something on donald trump. he tweeted the other day, march 16th, reluctantly i concluded that president trump is a serious threat to u.s. national security. he is refusing to protect vital u.s. interests from active russian attacks. it is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of putin. what do you think? >> i'm not prepared to go there just yet. i want to hear all of the facts, i want the mueller investigation to be completed. it is a working hypothesis that i think should be tested. but i think there is an alternative hypothesis that also needs to be tested. which is that trump thinks about foreign policy in terms of personal relationships. if you think about relationships around the world and he thinks of these as relationships with him. and i think that is damaging. i wab to -- i want to be clear, that is damaging to american national interest to have off the cuff remarks about this leader or that.

but it is an alternative to the more sinister hypothesis suggested in that tweet. >> the secretary general of the u.n. said we are entering a new cold war. do you think that is true? >> katy, i like to use a different term. i call it the hot piece. because the name of my next book is called "from cold war to hot peace" and i use that phrase to echo the cold war but to also suggest that it is different. because something sm things a--s are the same. we all have the nuclear arsenal to blow up the world and capability second to china between the united states and russia. that is like the cold war. we have an ideological struggle today that i don't think a lot of americans understand but that is most certainly the way that putin sees it. but some things are different. even in the last decades of the cold war, nobody annexed territory. that is what putin did in the ukraine. nobody intervened in the 20 -- in our election in the way that russia did in 2016. that is something new.

and these assassinations including in the u.k., that also is an extraordinary activity that i think distinguishes this period and i'm not so sure that the hot piece is any safer or more secure than the cold war. i think it is a hard question. i think you have to go deep into the cold war to remember a time when u.s. and russia relations were so confrontational. >> i'm almost out of time but one more quick question. are we ready for a cold war or a hot piece? >> no. no, we're not. we do not have a grand strategy for dealing with our current era. in the cold war we had containment. i think we need a policy of neo containment and elements of cooperation but so far we have not articulated a grand strategy for dealing with this very difficult and dangerous time. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, cold war and hot posseeace and

waiting for the book. thank you. and let's dive into the politics of president and russia. and i'm joined by hugh hewitt. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> why do you think there is such a disconnect between the actions of the administration and the words of the word? >> i think the president's silence is very studied here. and i agree with almost everything ambassador mcfall just told you. the one thing i would disagree with is maybe he doesn't have time to say it, sometimes what we see and hear is not what is going on at all. today in moscow, 23 different countries had their ambassadors summoned to expel 59 diplomats and that makes 27 countries sanctioned by russia in the aftermath of britain and the united states sanctioning russia. we are in a tense situation. and our col league said on my radio show this morning, he would like to see 60 days of

nobody saying anything and to confront where we must and i think the president's silence is strategic and useful. especially -- and i know the reporting is coming in slow, but in the middle east tonight the palestinians are alleging 15 were killed by israelis in clashes on the gaza border. the russians on other norther border of israel. and for those that don't know the region but it is dog gone close so there is something to be said for a great deal of care in the white house and the president right now on matters of foreign affairs, russian and middle east related. >> past presidents have tried to re-set with putin and warm up relations between the u.s. and russia. they've tried to befriend him and they've tried to get him on our side. maybe see eye to eye. do you think that that is possible and is that after everything we've seen in the past the best strategy for the president not to come out and be as tough on vladimir putin as say as he is publicly tough on

someone like kim jong-un. >> vice president cheney once told me on the air he looked into mr. putin's eyes and he saw a kgb colonel and i agree with vice president cheney on that matter. we are dealing with a kgb colonel and a seasoned intelligence operator and the gru agent who was murdered by a chemical weapon with 130 other casualties in great britain, you have a ruthless government that attacked our election and dispatched a war head called saton 2 this week. and if president trump said if you want to have a arms race, i will win. that is a good message to send on the television than on twitter. it is better to say that offline rather than online. i think you would agree. so i don't think there is much hope of doing anything with vladimir putin until we rebuild the military decimated over the last decade by sequester and until we get our allies lined up

as it appears to be happening. one more thing that the ambassador noted. this administration sent lethal aid to ukraine. it is much tougher on russia than the last administration across a whole host of things. >> he didn't say it is much tougher. he said it's following in line with the obama administration and they have taken steps that are tougher including that one but he -- >> he said double down. he said double down. >> you're exaggerating a little bit. let me ask you this. the president's own public posture, how can the united states truly get tough on russia and truly get tough on the country that meddled in the 2016 election if the president himself is trying to undermine the investigation into that meddling. >> well i think quickly confirm mike pompeo secretary of state. he's a hawk and a russia hawk. john bolton arrives on april 9. he is a reagan conservative full stop and not a neo con or just a regular piece conservative and

get him installed with the staff and gina haspel and get her confirmed and then the new foreign policy team with pompeo and jim mattis and bolton and john kelly and haspel in the boong booth. i love this new foreign policy team. and quiet strang of quiet men like george schultz and james baker and mike pompeo and haspel is what is most needed in this moment. >> and don't you need the back of the american public because night right now the president going after the investigation and what is at its heart russian meddling so fwrerequently he isd cutting the public opinion of whether or not russia did anything wrong. without general american support for this, general american belief that it actually happened and he's been trashing the intelligence community over this. don't you think that affects our ability to be tough on russia?

>> no, i think it is possible -- secretary clinton told me the radio, it is possible to hold two thoughts. i don't think he should attack the special counsel at all. and let that investigation run its course and say nothing about mueller. because i don't think there is any collusion to be proven and everything that looks like obstruction ends up being overheated. but at the same time, get that defense budget as it was passed up to $700 billion and get the columbia submarine out there with new missile technology and to deploy forward and recognize jerusalem as the capital and i'm happy with the -- >> and what about cybersecurity and make sure our elections can't be meddle in. what about the giant piece of the puzzle going unaddressed. >> absolutely. it was addressed in the defense budget. one of the things lindsey graham told me is part of the defense increase goes into our cyber capability. and it all gain begins with money -- >> it is over a year later and the 2018 midterms coming up. voting is already started.

why did it take so long and is it in place to make sure that 2020 goes off without a hitch. >> i think that the defense appropriation bill ought to have passed out of the senate far earlier than it did. i put the blame for that on the democrats and chuck schumer. so this is a partisan opinion that hasn't happen and we've broken the impasse and that is good because it used to be politics stopped at the waters edge and it ought to come back and have a strong defense and bipartisan. >> hugh hewitt, thank you for joining us. and we'll break this down with the panel coming up next. and if it is sunday, it is "meet the press." president trump appears to be pushing for a re-set of his presidency. as he becomes more comfortable in the job. among chuck's guests, veterans' affairs secretary david shulkin fired this week. and join chuck on sunday morning on "meet the press" on your local nbc station. i'm not a bigwig. or a c-anything-o. but i've got an idea sir. get domo.

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welcome back. tonight in meet the midterms, an ad in a tight primary that hits conservative buzzwords. take a look at this ad from evan jenkins. >> so i won the places that are optimistic, moving forward and his whole campaign was looking backwards. >> it is hillary who has it backwards. the big city she won are the places flooding our state with heroin. for lawlessness and looting and liberalism rule. chicago is the murder capital of america. yet they want to take our guns away. that is backwards. i'm evan jenkins, i approve this message to help president trump move america forward. >> guys, this ad has it all when itm coulds to cultural conservative red meat. hillary clinton and liberal elites in berkeley and liberals taking your gun and the trump card and outsiders flooding your state with heroin and a few

whistleblowers. but no reference to his current position in congress. maybe that is to keep him look like an outsider, free of the washington swamp stink. this ad break through, who knows but it usually riles up the trump base. back with more "mtp daily" in 60 seconds. not quite... just the result of dell emc working with callaway to gather data - and design best-in-class clubs, transforming the player into a bonafide golfer. oh! maybe it is a magic wand. magic can't make digital transformation happen... but we can. that's the power dell emc, part of dell technologies.

it wi called usaarst and the first thing they asked was 'are you ok?' they always thank you for your service, which is nice because as a spouse you serve too. we're the hayles and we're usaa members for life. welcome back. happy friday. let's get right to the panel. nora rothman from commentary magazine and eddy gaud from princeton university and contributor and amy chosic, new york times writer and author of an upcoming book about her time covering hillary clinton. can't wait for that. >> thank you. >> how do you explain the disconnect between donald trump, his own words, and the administration? do you think that there is a valid argument to be made that he is playing good cop and bad cop? >> with regards to russia?

>> yeah. >> it is fascinating, we heard throughout the 2016 campaign that trump would establish a great relationship with russia and wouldn't it be nice if we could sit down with putin and he could help in syria and all of these places. and in fact we have the most tense relationship since the cold war. and so i think it is less about go cop and bad cop and more about despite the bluster that we've heard from the president is actually having a hard time having that play out in policy wise and he's been influenced by forces within his administration that say the best thing to do is to expel the diplomats. he just didn't say anything about it. >> there are serious warnings that we could be entering a cold war. and mr. mcfall said we are not ready. >> and this is amounting for essentially a second cold war. the obama administration engaged in a re-set after the invasion of georgia which is annexation of territory. two years after the assination of litvinenko.

and so now it is hotter because we're sending mixed signals. this is my core fear with this presidency. it is tougher than the obama administration but the president won't say so. and don't know why, but is sending mixed signals to the kremlin and the fear is they will encroach in territory that ignites a crisis from which we can't fail to respond. >> and why open the president up to such criticism among the population here and abroad and why allow the president to get questioned over and over again on this if the administration is being as tough as it is. >> i think amy is correct. there is a impression that i believe in the president's head that he has this ability to change the forces of nature that are keeping -- the united states and russia at each other aggressively and sort of a confrontational posture because he is who he is. and we're seeing that play out in north korea. he believes his force of personality can change the geo-strategic elements on the ground that are fixed. because he has a very high opinion of himself.

>> so i would agree with everything that has been said. i would push back and condi rice knew this would be an issue and this is on the table. and i want to kind of take it out of the personality of donald trump. i think what we se-- see are foreign policy officials and trump is silent and to what we see -- i take it to be foreign policy professionals doing their job. and so why is he silent with regards to russia interference in our election and why hasn't he said smig about the assassination attempt in britain and why hasn't he said anything critical about russia. and i don't think it has anything to do with self conception but he may be compromised. >> you think general mccaffrey is not -- >> that is my gutin stin-- gut instinct. i don't think we account for his silence by reference to his only inflated sense of his abilities.

i don't think that makes sense in this instance. >> we also can't underestimate the ego. >> that is true. >> and any time there is talk of putin helping him get elected he's defensive. but to your point about north korea, you've got a president who thinks can he sit down with the leader of the north korea and then he justin stated john bolton who made a case for preemptively striking north korea as his security adviser so there is this dichotomy between the advisers and his own personal idea of sitting with these people. and he is as pressured on kim jong-un and calling vladimir putin names, are we in a better scenario if that is the case. >> i think that is impulse driven. but coercive signaling is coercive. you have to be very forceful and aggressive and clear-minded. there was a part of me that

didn't think donald trump was aware of the administration policy toward russia because of what he would say and nbc published a report that he told aides when he approved of the opening up of -- to ukraine, don't tell anybody and i don't want to anger putin. so he is aware and that it could frustrate his by lateral relationship with putin and i think he wants to preserve that. even though they are going very far out to coercively signal to the kremlin that you have a box in which you are constrained. >> i think your point is very interesting one. and that is what happens -- we know that auto crates owe kind of metastasizing across the world and bullies as head of states are beginning to kind of metastasize again. what does it mean for the head of the free world, the leader of the free world to kind of occupy that kind of position. bully in relationship to bully in relati in relation to bully.

i don't know if that bodes well. donald trump bluster and bravado is duplicated or has been and is duplicated across the globe. and i don't know if that is good. and the second thing i would say -- i know that is not good. but the second thing i would say is this. i don't know what the trump doctrine is. >> no one does. >> and part of it -- and in this geopolitical world to not have -- as much i disagree with the busch been the bush doctrine, i knew what it was. we have no idea what this is. except for the fact that we have this man who thrived in chaos. >> it does contribute to a general sense of anxiety, not just among people working in the foreign policier. >> and the american public. >> the words that encapsulate this are do not cob grat late. his advisers said not to and he did. and so there is this disconnect and you are not sure and it creates chaos. and it completely creates the

sense of what is his foreign policy. >> it is like you are expecting news and if it is bad news just tell me it is bad news and if you tell me that way i feel like i could settle it with myself and i can move on. tell me what your strategy is even if i disagree with it and at least i know where i stand. >> or you know where to push back and protest. >> exactly. stick with us. we'll come back to you later. noah eddy and imy. and new fiery over police shootings from sacramento to baton rouge. your letting go thing. your sorry not sorry thing. your out with the old in with the new, onto bigger and better thing. get the live tv you love. no bulky hardware. no satellite. no annual contract. try directv now for $10/mo for 3 months. more for your thing. that's our thing. visit directvnow dot com

a new development in the killing of stephon clark in sacramento. police shot and killed the unarmed father of two in his grandmother's backyard. according to results from a private autopsy he was shot eight times from the behind and the side. sacramento police say they were responding to a 911 call reporting a man smashing car windows in the area. the officers say they believed the suspect was pointing a firearm at them and fired 20 shots. and while the 20 gunshots were fired roughly in two seconds, the autopsy findings say that clark's death took three to ten minutes raising questions about whether he could have received life-saving medical attention. and also awaiting the release of police body cam and dash cam footage from the 2016 killing of alton sterling in baton rouge, louisiana. cell phone footage of police killing the 37-year-old black man sparked nationwide protests. louisiana attorney general said there is not enough evidence to file charges against the

officers who shot sterling seen in this photo right here six times after pinning him down in a convenience store parking lot. baton rouge police chief will announce if the officers will face a disciplinary penalty based on their actions in the incident. the decision comes down to whether or not they were foul-- following procedure. and when asked about the government response to repeated killing of black men at the hands of police sarah huckabee-sanders said it was a local matter. >> on the rulings that have taken place in the last few days, those are things that have to be done at a local level and they're not federal decisions at this point in time. >> we'll be right back after the break.

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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 deadly ebola outbreak in 2014 was as unprecedented as the mechanisms put in place to eliminate it. after the global efforts,

thousands of cdc were deployed to west africa and 23,000 were infected by the virus. 11,000 died. now the cdc will reportedly scale back work in dozens of foreign countries amid funding worries. and that has experts worried. they say it is not a matter of if there will be another viral outbreak, it is a matter of when. reid wilson explored how the world confronted the crisis and the global scramble to prevent the next killer outbreak. chuck todd sat down with wilson one-on-one. >> how did this happen and how did we successfully stop it? >> right. what surprises everybody the most is how unprepared the world is for the next global pandemic. and it is coming. it is not a question of if we encounter some virus or disease that will spread across the world and cause deaths, it is when. the shape of the world is totally changing. human society is expansing more into areas they've never been before and climate change means

the dona the tropics are bigger and the bugs extend farther and there is no global body and the world health organization was unprepared. to their credit, they've undergone a round of self-examination but still more to do. >> what would happen if the united states didn't exist with this ebola outbreak. because it feels as if there was no international leadership. >> millions more people would have died. the scd projected that if nothing had been done, the virus would have spread just within those three countries to impact and maybe kill more than a million people and in just a space of a few weeks. so without the u.s. effort, this would have spread not just regionally but globally. >> here we are in a moment where it feels as if countries are wanting to retreat from multi-lateralism and if we keep this planet alife, we'll have to

have so multi-lateralism and it is the big populations, the india and china and the wealthy countries and the united states and to a lesser extent russia. the world health organization, is it just too bureaucratic and do the big five countries need to just take this matter into their own hands, a big part of the spread was the world health organization was so weighed down by bureaucracy they were unable to muster theef fo-- the efforto stop something like this. in the feature, the next thing or the next virus, whatever it is, could come from a place like the center of africa or from a bird market in china. that is what a lot of international health experts are worried about. the next big thing being influenza. >> and so when i was reading you're book part of it is alarming and part reassuring. we stop this. we had one person die of ebola.

now the coverage and the panic you would have thought we lost thousands. >> right. >> or hundreds or tens -- or more people have died in the last second from the flu right now than from ebola. >> this is at its heart an optimistic story and it is because as desperately poor and in need as these three countries were, this outbreak happened in a place where the u.s. has a very close relationship with liberia and we created the country and the u.k. has a close relationship with silly own and with france and imagine if this -- >> the three countries with the most superior medical -- >> imagine if this happened in pakistan or indonesia. the arrival was seen as a blessed event. the 101st airborne going into pakistan? they have to fight their way in before they even get to the virus. >> so it was luck where it happened. it could have happened in another part of africa and been

much harder to make this happen. >> and the u.s. is testing the drug there that will save lives in other parts of africa among our close allies. but africa is changing. and there are parts of africa where u.s. presence is no longer welcome. >> the real tragedy is i've spent some time in west africa, particularly ghana. west after is a good news story or was before ebola. this -- while i understand it was lucky that it happened there and that we could save the -- it was an easier chance to save this from becoming a pandemic. it set back western africa. >> it did. and to the tune of billions of dollars in a place where the life expectancy is lower than anywhere else in the world. where the average life -- >> the arrows were all up. two years and they are all up and now it is -- >> there is still hope. especially for democracy in west africa. just in the last few months the presence of liberia and sierra leon have changed in a peaceful transition of power. so there is optimism.

>> the obama administration tackled this in a crisis mode and it feels similar to how they handled the gulf spill clean-up. it looked messy at the time. but the result is a result. it was a successful clean-up. >> one of the things i think the obama administration realized they didn't approach this with the urgency and president obama was never a high drama person. no drama obama. so without that, they left the vacuum open for the fear monger that you talk about. and they fix that in the evidence responsibility to zooezooe -- zika. and they were tackingling the problem even though it has a mortality rate not even comparable to ebola. >> reid wilson. good for you for digging into this. because these are the type of contexts that we don't -- everybody said you don't do this. yes, we do as journalists, just go read it. >> and it is a good news story

about americans who went over and helped people who needed to be help. >> and reminder why you have to have some multi-lateralism. thanks very much. >> a good point by my friend chuck todd. a lot of journalist out there, just go and look for it. and coming up, scott pruitt's washington, d.c. apartment arrangement. we'll explain. and later tonight on the beat withary mel bur, he gets a new exclusive and details on the facebook data breach scandal from a cambridge analytica whistleblower tonight at 6:00 p.m. right after "mtp daily." ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring.

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new questions are being raised about buying and selling influence in the trump administration. bloomberg news is reporting that white house officials have grown concerned about what looks like a sweetheart deal on a d.c. apartment for the president's epa chief scott pruitt. his landlord with is a lobbyist whose husbands represents clients in the energy industry which pruitt regulates. it is a strange deal because ethics watch dogs might see it as potentially buying influence with people connected to energy companies or pruitt potentially selling his influence to win points with his landlord. either way, as president trump might say -- >> i don't like the optics of what you just said. >> but guys, this is an

administration reif with deals with questions about buying and selling of white house influence. the optics are rarely good. the president's personal business has been enriched by taxpayer party and foreign money, take the d.c. hotel for instance. and jared kushner personal business secured giant loans from companies after he met with them at the white house. even the president's son don jr. has rubbed shoulders with foreign leaders as he was promoting trump real estate projects. and that doesn't include spending controversy involving the president's cabinet, looking at you ben carson and that dining set, or other advisers. more after this. yard, is his se. yard, is his se. the scotts turf builder program. all it takes is 4 feedings, with a scotts solution for every season. it's that easy. this is a scotts yard. it was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource.

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you might look at it and say it is not a bad deal, $50 a night for living space in d.c. but the guy that the wife -- the wife of the guy that owns it is -- or the woman who owns it, her husband is a d.c. lobbyist for the epa. >> yeah. >> an energy company at least. >> i feel like democrats had got off track with the whole russia collusion thing investing so deeply in it when the scandal that could hurt this administration is in front of their eyes and tts the emoluments issue you. david shulkin has my directioned everybody when he said i'm standing against the powers that want to privatize this v.a. system and didn't special counsel the tha-- and he has hi lie and falsify investigation to his investigators so his wife could take a trip to europe and that gets you fired and the

democrats -- >> and it is that and ben carson and scott pruitt and the sound proof booth in the white house. there is travel and that everybody has -- >> mnuchin. >> and everybody has problem with. there is a ton of stuff and not to mention a ton of stuff, not mention in the d.c. hotel. don jr. going to india, and doing the foreign policy speech, while he's touting his real estate holdings. >> one, donald trump ran on the claim that he was going to drain the swamp, in fact he's just made it larger, more expansive, deeper. that's the first thing, and two, donald trump has never represented himself as a paragon of virtue, so they're related. that this guy has always been in new york circles and new jersey circles a shady business guy, he's not that blue chip business guy, he's engaged in these business dealings that we always thought were questionable.

so what do we have? we have folks around him who have license to enrich themselves on the back of the american people. >> if we said th-- why is it ok for donald trump because this is the way he's always been and people knew who they were electricing. >> with regards to russia, there's a new explosive thing coming out all the time for russian investigations. there was a saying during the bill clinton administration that personnel is policy. so with regard to pruitt, i would look at the epa this week that they could be rolling back greenhouse gas emissions, it's not the fact that he was in this lobbyist house, it's the policy, i think you have to look at the policies and how is it impacting

them and is it impacting them. >> can you sayimpa impacting them? >> no, not necessarily, but i think this is happening in people's lives. and then you have the epa sleeping in this townhouse. >> and it wouldn't be an unreasonable image. >> in response to the shooting in sacramento, yesterday sarah huckabee-sanders called it a local matter. >> particularly since the fbi is investigating this shooting. there was also a recent shooting in houston, very similar, a gentleman who comes from pretty tragic circumstances, unarmed african-american gentleman shot and killed by police. these are the kinds of things that would occupy our minds and drive the national conversation for days , if not for weeks a

couple of years ago. we have sort of inflated electoral potency because of the opinion of a set. focusing excessively i believe, on the things that drive the white working class, the votrum voter set, in particular things that drive african-american communities and minority groups. i do think this is subconscious, but it's driving an ov overcorrection significantly. >> he used black lives matter as a wedge issue. >> yes. >> do you think that this administration just doesn't care? >> no, absolutely, i do. they don't give a damn. jeff sessions, every consent decr

decree. one of the things that has haunted this nation since its beginnings, is what i call the value gap. we live in a country where white people gather more than others to echo here. to the extent to which that value gap attains, no matter what the inputs are, you're going to have the same. the police were called for vandalism in cars and the guy has eight bullets put him in. >> in his back. >> and dylan roof was taken to burger king. to bunger king. nikolas cruz is still alive. so the assumption that black lives don't matter, from the top, and this is not simply emotion, this is real, this is a guy who whhas to raise his kid,o make sure that his own child can come home.

so when you hear what these folks do what they do, what you have to assume they don't give a damn about black people or poor people, just about themselves. >> jeff sessions is correcting for something that barack obama said was happening. >> noah, eddie, guys. >> i had a point to make on that. >> we'll be right back.

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in case you missed it, the "mtp daily" team has dug up a floppy eared controversy. every year the president hosts the white house easter egg roll. and as we looked back into our archives, we began to notice something a little hair raising, if you will. the presidents change, but the easter bunny remains the same, there he is during the obama administration. he made it through both terms of the bush white house, he was president clinton's right hand man or bunny as well. and that got us thinking, should there be term limits for the white house easter bunny? the president can only serve two terms, so what gives? is this bunny a spotlight hog? and are they giving him government benefits? i say let someone else get their rabbits foot in the door.

that begs the question, who would be the hair apparent? sure, you can't just pull any rabbit out of the house, but i can assure there's a 24 caret candidate out there somewhere. it's a tough job, but some bunny's got to do it. so if you have any suggestions as to who should be america's top rabbit, i'm all ears. we'll be back monday on "mtp daily." and if it's sunday it's me"meet the press" on your nbc stations. "the beat" starts right now. this is new reporting from cnn that before trump campaign aid rick gates flipped, mueller's team made it clear that they wanted information on potential collusion between trump and the russians. meaning this was not just about paul manafort. to be clear, nbc has not confirmed this report, but it does la