going to gain confidence. and the more confidence you get, the easier it is to step forward. >> that is all for this welcome to "kasie d.c." i'm kasie hunt. we are live from washington every sunday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight, publish or perish? james comey is out with a bombshell new book as the feds release a report deeply critical of andrew mccabe. we're joined by congressman jim himes of the house intelligence committee who says the president doesn't have the right to shine james comey' shoes. plus sanctions coming for russia after america strikes targets in

syria. but what remains to be seen is the american strategy. beyond declaring mission accomplished. but first, the week begins full of questions. what do the feds have on michael cohen? who is back in court in just a few hours. stormy daniels will be there, too. how will the president react to james comey' interview tonight? and how much longer will rod rosenstein have an office in the department of justice? we only know one thing. as comey and the president trade ad hominems, robert mueller presses on quietly in the background. we have a lot to discuss tonight. i want to welcome in my awesome panel. panel. with me here in washington white house bureau chief for the washington post and msnbc political analyst philip rucker. reporter for "the new york times" and msnbc national security contributor michael schmidt. pete williams. anita kumar, and joining the conversation from new york, former fbi special agent and msnbc national security analyst clint watts.

thank you all for being here tonight. michael schmidt, i want to start with you because this book that we have been learning about the last few days, the interview set to air tonight, james comey in many ways this saga was touched off by your reporting in "the new york times" about hillary clinton's use of private e-mail when she was secretary of state. what in this book that comey has put out do you feel is going to make a material difference in how events unfold with the mueller investigation as we go forward? >> i'm not sure how much it really changes the equation there. the one thing is that if comey were to ever be a witness against trump, like in front of the -- in front of congress or

even at a trial or anything, they could say, look, and you had a real motivation to go after the president. you wrote this whole book. you made all of this money. you did all of these things. maybe your word shouldn't be taken as seriously. maybe they could undermine him that way. in terms of details about the president, about the e-mail investigation. investigation. i'd say the newest thing is the reaction by trump and his folks when they were briefed in january of 2017 when they were first told about the hack. and they first respond and say, hey, how are we going to deal with this politically? but besides that you had comey testify on capitol hill for many hours and covered a lot of these things. >> pete williams, what's your take on that? do you think -- i was surprised comey would be willing to come out and say so much when he is potentially a witness in the investigation. it seems the opposite, whenever you're talking about these investigations on television, you know, we very often hear your sources cannot speak about an ongoing investigation. >> i think the message that comes through is mr. comey is still upset about being fired. probably rightly so. i think the things that we learn about are some of the

explanations for his decision and surprisingly some of the reaction to it, especially on the clinton e-mail investigation. i will say one other thing, kasie. there was a race, i think, to see which was going to come out first, the comey book, or the inspector general's report on how the fbi handled the clinton e-mail investigation which recall was started before mr. trump actually took the oath of office. so, it's been over a year now. and we learned on friday when the mccabe report came out in a letter to the hill, that now the inspector general says that report will come out sometime in may. what's interesting is comey says in his book that after all the beating he took from democrats, including in a private meeting from senator al franken, the chuck schumer came up to him with tears in his eyes and grabbed his arm and said, you did what you had to do. he said he had a meeting toward the end of november with president obama who said, i chose you because i thought you were the right guy. you were full of integrity and nothing you've done since then, nothing has changed my opinion. >> speaking of democrats being angry, phil rucker, i think you know as well as i do some of the people that seem to dislike comey than anyone else in washington worked for hillary clinton. we have this tweet from former clinton campaign advisor philip about james comey. it says, quote, a higher loyalty to whom?

comey's twitter handle. fbi? no, you set the bureau back by years. doj? no, broke every rule. usa? no, blew up a candidate. your oath? no, didn't quit. fired. only one thing, not subtlety on twitter. >> or off twitter. >> or off twitter, yes. what is your take on kind of the way comey has set himself out here from a political perspective? >> well, he's vulnerable with this book. he's clearly got both partisans on the democratic side and on the republican side who frankly hate his guts and think he made a lot of bad judgments in his time as the fbi director. in his book he has a few chapters detailing his work on the clinton e-mail investigation. he defends his handling of it. he says with a couple stylistic points about the speech in july he would have done differently. substantively he would not have done anything differently. what i found pretty striking is the message of sort of apology

to hillary clinton. he says, i read in your memoir what happened, that you're angry with me, that you blame me for this loss. and it's not a full apology, but he says i'm sorry you're so angry, i'm sorry you feel that way, and i'm sorry i couldn't have explained better to you and your supporters and the american people why i did what i did. >> he admits in the sound bite released today he was making that decision in the context of he believed she was going to win the election and that may have subconsciously influenced his thinking. >> he also makes -- that's true. he says it may have subconsciously impacted his thinking. he says he didn't deliberately make a decision based on the political environment and to do so would be very bad for the country. >> so, as we've been talking about just now, people on both sides of the 2016 campaign have questioned james comey' motivations. former new jersey governor chris christie had this to say about how comey handled reopening the

clinton probe days before the election. >> it is exactly what they teach you not to do. and i think it's unfortunate that jim's -- who is a good guy, a good family man, a good person and was a very good prosecutor. but he began to believe his own press clippings and it's the biggest danger in public life. and the hubris that he shows in that interview is extraordinary to me and not the guy that i worked with or worked for. and it's sad. >> want to add one more seemingly unrelated item to this. comey concludes the book by comparing the trump white house to a forest fire that may bring some destructive good. quote, the next president, no matter the pat at this, will surely emphasize values, truth, integrity, respect and tolerance in ways an american leader hasn't needed to for more than 40 years. the fire will make something good grow. i wrote this book because i hope it will be useful to people living among the flames who are thinking about what comes next.

clint watts, i want to go to you on this as somebody who worked inside the agency. that seems like a remarkably political statement. and i think the overall picture here of comey is someone who is a political operator. is that the way people you know inside the bureau view it? is that the way you look at it? >> i didn't serve there when comey was in charge. what i find interesting about his book, the only bad guys are mob bosses or terrorists or criminals. it's all politicians. it's the first fbi book i've ever seen where it is really aimed at other people inside the beltway. and the biggest enemy also seems to be the swamp, ironically. what i think is notable about this is how comey seems to have had to navigate a nearly impossible path. depending on how you see his situation, he was navigating away from lynch and sort of the democrat side, leading into being cheered on by the

republicans and having a 180 and reversal. and it must have been a lonely path and it also is one that really speaks to our institutions today under trump, which is how can you actually do your job when you're between capitol hill and the white house, and you have these competing pressures going on in this polarized environment. i like his quote there at the end, but i am very skeptical that that will be the out outcome. >> pete williams, what's your view? you've covered many fbi -- well, a handful of fbi directors. they come and go less frequently than other officials in washington. do you view comey as an average fbi director or is this par for the course of this significance? >> you inevitably get sucked into this. if that sense he's forever going

to have that around his neck in this legacy. louie free got a lot of heat for the investigation whether there was anything done wrong in clinton fund-raising. not so much mueller. he will be remembered as fib fox business director for the guy who kept the fbi glued together after 9/11 when there was a lot of effort to tear it apart into two separate things, one that would do intelligence and one that would do conventional criminal work. you know, the comey book here, i think the things that surprise me were how willing he is to constantly talk about the mafia in terms of his dealings

with the president. >> right. >> and some of the more sort of seeming details about the dossier. i'm surprised he went into that detail. if you look at the book as a whole, you start at the beginning and go to the end, it's jim comey explaining why he did what he did and who he is. he says at one point i think candidly that people criticize him for perhaps having too much of an ego or perhaps too much confidence in his own judgment, and that this may be a weak point for him. i think he's quite candid about that because a lot of people have said that about him. >> michael schmidt, do you agree? >> yeah, i think he's going to spend a lot of time for the rest of his life trying to explain this to people, trying to make them see the world through his eyes. the funny thing to watch here in washington is that it's both sides that don't like him, but they also sort of like him for other reasons. i mean, for the democrats, you know, without his firing you probably wouldn't have mueller. and they really saw his firing as a huge issue that unleashed enormous amount of things about trump. so, the thing about comey is he doesn't fit into one small thing. it's too complicated. >> do you sense remorse from comey about how he handled the clinton investigation at all? >> i don't. >> no, none whatsoever. the one thing that he talks about, and he goes into great detail, is the decision -- not

so much the july news conference where they said she shouldn't be charged, but that she did bad things -- is the letter that he sent to congress in late october saying, woops, we found some more e-mails. stand by. we'll let you know whether there is anything good in there or not. that's the one where he says -- sort of enlarges on what he said at the senate at the time. i had to either conceal or reveal. there was no good alternative and i chose a bad one, but the other was worse. >> when he went out and does the press conference in july and people don't appreciate this, he really ratcheted up the rhetoric on it. he made it a public issue in a way that it wasn't before and really turned things up. >> he was essentially saying, well, i'm not going to prosecute but he offered his own rhetorical indictment. >> made it a political thing, even bigger. >> we need to change gears ever so slightly. while the focus was on james comey and robert mueller, the fbi was raiding michael cohen's home and offices with the approval of rod rosenstein. federal prosecutors indicated he is under criminal investigation, and yet he and the president reportedly talked on friday. there are reports prosecutors are interested in his communications about stormy daniels, about the access hollywood tape, even discussions with a bank that issued loans for taxi medallions that he owns. we're following reporting that the special counsel has evidence

cohen was in prague in 2016, possibly confirming part of the infamous steele dossier. mcclatchy reporting according to two sources familiar with the matter, there is evidence of cohen's secret czech trip in late summer 2016. this could be one step in confirming a portion of christopher steele's dossier which accuses cohen of meeting with russian officials in prague to strategize on election meddling. at the time the dossier was published by buzzfeed, cohen tweeted a picture of his passport and wrote, quote, i have never been to prague in my life. buzzfeed published pictures of

his passport which didn't show a trip to prague but did show a trip to italy. he could have freely traveled to italy without getting a passport stamp. since that report cohen was back on twitter writing, no matter how many times they write it, i was never in prague. i was with my son. prove it. bradie stepped down on friday when it was reported cohen represented him in a $1.6 million sex scandal when she said he got her pregnant. the times reports trump's inner circle sees the raid as a bigger threat to trump than the mueller investigation. that could be because cohen was known to tape conversations he had. although he says he never taped any conversations with trump. okay, there is a lot there. anita kumar, what of this -- the prague reporting seems quite interesting because of the broader context of this dossier. >> right. i mean, totally. my colleagues had that story and as you explained, he had flat-out said he had never been

there. the president said it was bad reporting before. but if this could open a whole can of worms if it's true. it's just in general the cohen situation is just not good for the president. first of all, this is a guy who he's been very close to for a long time. his fixer, someone who knows all about donald trump -- >> we can't just call him a lawyer. he's much more than that. >> he knows much more than that. he knows so much about donald trump. this is getting to what the president calls a red line, it gets into his businesses. he never let them go. he still retains them. that's really going to get under his skin. >> what is going on with mueller and the investigation? >> i think we simply don't know. we know that it was something

that the mueller team found that they basically handed off, this hot potato to the southern district of new york, so that now it's being handled not by mueller's team, but by the regular old fbi and justice department, u.s. attorney in new york. now whether they are going to get and feed it back to mueller, i think we just don't know the answer to that. >> clint watts, michael cohen is going to be back in court tomorrow to try and prevent some of this evidence from seeing the light of day to essentially block these documents, citing attorney/client privilege. what is the fbi's role in sort of through that now and does that potentially -- is there a case to be made on cohen's end? >> yeah, cohen -- this is totally likely and logical that he would try and pursue this. he's going to want to suppress all evidence that's out there. but there was really four layers that this went through. from mueller to rosenstein, southern district of new york. from that office to the judge to do this warrant which means they have to believe that there is something there that he's hiding. they have to have probable cause for that. i think it's going to be pretty tough for him to overturn. but what we should recognize is that all the way across the board, for the trump administration, this is a disaster. the biggest weakness for all of mueller's investigations were other crimes discovered during

the course of investigation. and so as this mushrooms, you now have more investigators in new york running in a different direction into the trump team. i think it's a very damaging situation for the white house. >> one other bar czar note i just want to mention from the "wall street journal" report on elliott broedy. they write the broedy agreement uses the same pseudonyms for mr. broidy and the one he was allegedly involved. david denison, the same name used for mr. trump and ms. clifford. phil rucker, before we go to break here, this seems like the issue that could potentially set the president off beyond all other issues that could potentially lead him to fire rod rosenstein. would you say that chatter around that -- there was so much speculation he was going to do that friday. that didn't actually happen. >> yeah, you know, kasie, there have been a lot of moments in three's 15 months when donald trump's been president when he's been angry or upset or raging. we write about his moods a lot. but this week felt different this past week. he was really irate over the raids on cohen, over the unknowns. it wasn't clear what records were obtained in the raid. what were the prosecutors in new

york looking into, what was mueller's involvement in it. just so many unknowns and it's just a web for donald trump that keeps on unraveling here. and the broidy situation is troubling as well for the white house. i think there is a lot of concern. i know there's a lot of concern at 1600 pennsylvania. >> tapes, there are tapes. >> there are tapes. >> when we come back, james comey's criticism of loretta lynch. plus insight in the former fbi director from people who know him best, ben. first the typical way forward in syria. bombs are one thing, but peace is quite another. and later, democratic congressman joe crowley as republicans face big questions about their leadership in the future. democrats do, too. will he one day replace nancy pelosi? you're watching "kasie d.c." "i have antivirus, but my computer's still slow..." "that's not right..." "maybe if i reboot..." "what's with all the popups?" "why does it keep on crashing?" "this is taking forever."

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set to impose new sanctions against russia tomorrow as punishment for their role in enabling syria's use of chemical weapons. meanwhile the president took to twitter praising friday night's coalition air strikes. quotes, the syrian raid was so perfectly carried out with such precision the only way the fake news media could demean was by my use of the term "mission accomplished." i knew they would season this, but felt it was such a great military term it should be brought back, use often. here's u.n. ambassador nikki haley this morning. >> mission accomplished is a military term, and as a military spouse i know that mission accomplished means you have one task currently in front of you. and when it's completed, it is mission accomplished. politically, mission accomplished means something broader and i think that the president was referring in military terms. >> former bush press secretary ari fleischer tweeted, um, i would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words. joining me now are msnbc's aman and national cortical perry. gentlemen, thanks very much for

being here. aman, i'd like to start with you for some perspective on the president's use of this term, mission accomplished. obviously the reference back to president bush and the iraq war, a very different circumstance. this is one where the world community has watched in shock and herrer. >> yeah. >> and yet managed to not act in a meaningful way. >> yeah, i think if you want to give the president the benefit of the doubt as nikki haley there was saying, the mission accomplished part of it was simply the military carrying out strikes on three location ands successfully hitting those. that's a very low bar, not from a military standpoint, but what the military says is the broader objective, which is to deter the syrian president, bashar al-assad from carrying out further chemical weapons attacks. that's what they said about the military attacks. if it is to deter the syrian regime from using chemical weapons, it is impossible to

know mission accomplished because we don't know what the syrian regime is going to do. even by their own admission they said there is a chance he is going to reconstitute his chemual kaepz arsenal and try to carry out another chemical weapons attack again -- in the months ahead. by any measure of the word, whether it is a political or military one, it's still not going to meet the threshold of a successful mission accomplished. >> cal perry, do you agree with aman's assessment there? what mission do you think was accomplished here? >> yeah, i agree completely. i think the mission probably

back fired on the president. look, he boxed himself in three days ago, four days ago now, when he foreshadowed that attack. it's almost as though they had to do something. we know there is a split going on between mattis and bolton. it is very likely mattis was able to take back some of these targets and the scope of this attack. but when you look at what the effect this has had internationally, it's only helped assad claim power. it only helped him form further power over the people of syria. it's only helped the russians say to bashar al-assad, you need us here. look, we've already seen reports that the russians are moving more weapons, more equipment into syria. but it allows them to say to the syrian president, if we were not here, your regime would be possibly in danger. if the u.s. was serious by doing this. the other thing about this is what we've been talking about all week. half a million people in syria have died in a seven-year brutal civil war. most of those people have died not by chemical weapons but by very crude weapons, these barrel bombs and by simply being shot and blown up by the syrian army. that's not going to change. assad is only going to continue to widen his grip on syria. this war is probably wrapping up. the question is what really was accomplished? certainly i don't think mission accomplished is necessarily even just strictly a military term. certainly this president doesn't seem to be commander in chief

first amongst all the other things that he seems to be, kasie. >> phil rucker, cal perry referenced that split between bolton and mattis and the white house. how did this unfold from a national security decision making point of view? the president does seem to be legitimately happy with his decision here. >> yeah, so, there was never really much of a debate over whether to strike back on syria from late saturday night last week when the president was first briefed by john kelly, the chief of staff at the white house, about what had happened. he wanted to strike back. it was just a matter of when and how, what the coalition would look like, what the targets would be, how heavy the strike would be. trump wanted to do more than he did last year and was adamant with his advisors that he do more, but mattis was urging some caution. mattis wanted to be more deliberative in the process, wanted or was reminding the president about the dangers of escalating when you've got russia, when you've got iran, when you don't know how this could all unfold down the road. and what they ended up going with was an option that was pretty moderate, if you will. i mean, it was nearly double the number of missiles as in 2017, which was important to trump. but this was not the sort of attack that was enough to really

provoke russia into a clash with us. >> and is it your kind of reporting or understanding that the president has walked back from his -- i mean, it was just a week or two ago, i lose time. he wanted to pull out entirely. >> pull out of syria, let other people fight the war. here we are fighting the war two weeks later. it speaks of a lack of seriousness in the strategy. the president was motivated by the drama, the images, the atrocities he saw playing out

frankly in pictures and video from that chemical gas attack rather than by some overarching doctrine. >> i'm glad you raise that because you're right, at times it has taken dramatic graphic and tragic imagery to shock our global consciousness overseer i can't's semen year war. this was one of the images that brought it to home to americans. in 20153-year-old refugee life less in turkey. it brought mass donations but no military solution. and this is 5-year-old amran stunned and sitting in the back of an ambulance in 2015. they were bombed by syrian forces. he survived and is alive in damascus. we've been seeing images of attacks using nerve agents since 2013. the ones you're seeing now in 2018. time and time again, it has taken images like this to get the world to act. and yet, aman, mow ha dean, it's so clear so far the actions the world has collectively taken to try to stop this have ultimately work. president obama promised this was not going to happen again. >> yeah, i mean, when you look at it on two different levels, the international community's response through the u.n., the road has been completely blocked by russia. every time there is' been any kind of diplomatic effort to try to either sanction syria or do

something, we see that the russian s are willing to use their veto to protect the syrian regime. and that has led to that impasse on the international level. but there is also the problem on the kind of street level of the battle field. it is a complex battle field that has evolved over the past seven years. the gulf area, iraq, the syrian regime, they are all fighting inside of syria. as a result there is no neutral party. there is no one single party that has been able to dominate the battle field to the point that they can force everyone else to the negotiating table. and so what we have now is a fractured country that is broken down, 500,000 civilians, millions and millions of syrians pouring into neighboring

countries. it's a humanitarian disaster. and it's altered and changed the geo politics of the middle east for decades to come. iran has certainly become more emboldened. a strong hold inside syria. we've seen the rise of militant groups and others like isis that are dominant players. not just inside syria, but across the region. >> aman and cal, thank you so much for your time tonight. i really appreciate it. just ahead, we'll talk about low blows and a higher loyalty. during this famous photo op, james comey writes, quote, the president was not going to get a hug without being a whole lot stronger than he looked. he wasn't. and don't miss msnbc's headliners tonight at 9:00 p.m. chris mathews hosts the special hour ahead of the release of james comey' new memoir coming up at 9:00 p.m. right after "kasie d.c." my mom washes the dishes... ...before she puts them in the dishwasher. so what does the dishwasher do? new cascade platinum lets your dishwasher be the dish washer.

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as rumors swirl about the uncertain future of rod rosenstein, nbc news is reporting that the deputy attorney general appears to be fully aware he could be fired soon and he's at peace with it. here's sally to talk about what happens if he's shown the exit.

>> it creates a tremendous amount of anxiety. it's been weeks we're holding our breath whether he's going to fire bob mueller or whether he's going to fire rod rosenstein. it feels like we're teetering on the brink of the demise of the rule of law. what's even more dangerous and insidious about firing rod would be that he can do all of that in secret because people don't know. when i say he, i mean his replacement could do all of that in secret, because people don't really know what decisions the deputy attorney general is making. and the idea that you would fire the deputy attorney general essentially in retaliation for a search being executed on your lawyer's office, i mean, what did happen to the rule of law here? >> sources also tell nbc rosenstein believes history will

prove he did the right thing in firing james comey and the american people don't have all the facts yet. michael schmidt, what's your view on the ramifications for the mueller investigation? should trump make this move? is it the same as firing mueller? >> well, the thing is that the person could come in, as sally yates points out, and really sort of cripple this investigation, really undermine it. the interesting thing i found is the fact that rosenstein had sent this information up to new york.

it will now live at the u.s. attorney's office up there and it's outside of mueller. it's not part of a burgeoning mueller witch hunt. it's just the regular federal prosecutors going about their job. and reining that in and killing that is harder to do if it was under mueller. >> it was a safety net move. >> correct, it spreads the chips on the table. >> pete, do you agree with that assessment? >> yes, and i should say that sally yates knows something about what it's like to be fired by president trump because she was, remember. she was acting attorney general and she refused to defend the first travel ban and so she got fired as well. so, she knows, she knows the feeling. but i think that just simply getting rid of bob mueller or simply -- well, bob mueller is a different matter. simply getting rid of rod rosenstein doesn't end the russia investigation. getting rid of mueller it doesn't it would fold back into the justice department where mueller was appointed in the first place. firing people to make the russia investigation go away is probably not going to be very effective. >> the justice department's inspector general's report on fired fbi director andrew mccabe on a different topic details four times when he gave misleading statements. it accuses mccabe of inappropriately authorizing sensitive information to a reporter. it is referring to a "wall street journal" article about twengs between the fbi and d.o.j. on how to handle the clinton e-mail probe. mccabe was said to insist the fbi press forward on the investigation. the report says while mccabe had the power to disclose approving that information, he did so in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the

expense of department leadership. the white house branded james comey and andrew mccabe as two peas in a pod and the president tweeted, quote, doj just issued the mccabe report which was a total disaster. he lied, lied, lied. mccabe was totally controlled by comey. mccabe is comey. no collusion, all made up by this "den of thieves" and low lives. mccabe's lawyer tweeted, thank you for providing even more material for the defamation suit we are actively considering filing against you and your colleagues.

stay tuned. he added in a statement, quote, the termination of mr. mccabe was completely unjustified in the rush to fire him at the goading of the president was unworthy of the great traditions of the department of justice. pete, last time you were here we were talking about the story because it all just unfolded. now that we've had a chance to see this report, what do you view as -- does this essentially justify the firing in your view? >> well, it's not good for mr. mccabe in this sense. it says that confronted with this story he initially said -- i don't know where it came from, the suggestion in the report is that he told director comey when comey asked about it, it wasn't me, boss. and that he called the new york fbi office twice to say, hey, what's all this -- what are all these leaks that i'm reading about in the paper? where are they coming from? it said he should have known. he was the deputy director of the fbi. he had the authority to release and make this information public. it wasn't classified, it wasn't before a grand jury. what the report says is he didn't do that in the public interest. he did that in his interest. now, his people obviously disagree with that, but the fact is, in my interview with christopher wray he indicated he didn't have any problem with mccabe's firing. the fbi's office of professional responsibility signed off on it. so did the senior guy at the justice department. it didn't look very good that the ultimate decision was made by jeff sessions who was repeatedly criticized by the president, but this report is not very helpful to andrew mccabe. >> michael schmidt? >> what mccabe has done here is pretty shrewd.

he has gotten into trouble with the inspector general with these career folks that signed off on this. but he's tried to paint himself as sort of a mini comey. i'm a victim of this administration. i have been wronged. >> i have a higher loyalty. >> and, of course, the president -- i don't know if he missed it or whatever, takes mccabe and comey and throws them together in the same tweet yesterday, and then that allows mccabe to continue the narrative of, look at what this out of control administration did to me. >> anita? >> i was saying the white house felt really good about it, right, this report. but it's been really overshadowed by comey. i mean, people, you talk to people and they haven't really focused on it at all. they have been very worried about the comey book, the comey interview. we keep hearing on today sunday that who knows what he's going to do when he sees that

interview. i will say some people have told me that are close to the white house they have been relieved so far that, while there's been some salacious details in the comey book they haven't seen anything that might really change the narrative and people's minds are pretty much made up. we'll see what happens. >> anita kumar, pete williams, michael schmidt, thank you for your time tonight. i really appreciate it. still to come, why james comey almost called for a special prosecutor to look into hillary clinton. but first, we'll ask one of the top democrats in the house whether the president needs congress's permission if he opts to bomb syria again. joe crowley joins me next.

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new poll numbers out today show some good news for democrats as they head into this year's midterm elections. the latest msnbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows democrats leading republicans by 7 points in the generic preference poll. there are some signs of shrinking enthusiasm for democrats overall. not only is this number down from a 10-point lead last month, but when asked if their vote would send to congress to be a check on president trump, and republicans 40% said yes. that's compared to 46% who said that back in october. joining me now, the chairman of the house democratic caucus and new york congressman joe crowley. congressman, thanks so much for your time tonight. i really appreciate you being here. >> thank you, kasie. always great to be with you.

>> let's start with those midterm numbers. clearly we have some time to go before these fall elections, but what is it that you think is going to be the deciding factor for democrats in taking back the house? why are those numbers moving now and does it matter in the long run? >> well, i still think balance is a big issue for the american people. i think they see the government way out of whack and this is their opportunity. these midterm elections, to set washington straight and to bring balance back to washington. i also think the biggest issue for these congressional districts is all politics is local. as tip o'neal said. and they need to focus on their districts. what medicare means to their constituency, what social security means to their constituency. talk about job creation and economic growth, those are the things i think are going to help elect democrats throughout this country. and as well, kasie, i think the caliber of democrats that we're putting up are incredible. we see more scientists running for elected office, more women, more veterans running for elected office -- >> you also had very crowded slates in democratic primaries. are you concerned at all that

some of those primaries might also cost you seats? >> i think that has a way of working itself out. i think people understand what's at stake. democrats as well as republicans understand what's at stake and that is at future of our country. things are so out of balance, kasie, that they recognize this is their only, maybe the last chance to really have an opportunity to bring that balance back to washington, ask that's why i think they'll focus on those issues in this general election in november. >> house speaker paul ryan announced that he will not run for reelection this past week. how does that help or hurt democrats in the midterm elections? do you think that that is a sign that they are potentially heading for a blue wave and do you think it will hurt fund-raising? >> i think it certainly says when paul ryan's district itself is more plain now than ever before, the gentleman running against him has already raised well over $5 million and he can put towards whoever he will face in november.

he had to be determined. but i do think it was a clear signal, the clearest signal so far that we've had that paul ryan himself didn't have faith that they would hold on to the majority and he would no longer be speaker and that he might possibly be blamed after the election for that loss. so, i think that's why he got out as early as he did. it really was surprising to all of us, i think. >> the speaker had only been in that job for about 2 1/2 years. the two men most talked about to replace him, steve scalise, both much younger than the members of the democratic leadership team. are you at all concerned that republicans will benefit from having new blood in their leadership while democrats are in many ways stuck with the same team that you guys have been running with for a good long time now? >> no, you know, you're making me seem very old at 56 years of age, kasie. >> i do not include you in that. >> look, i think that what democrats are focused on, that includes myself, that includes leader pelosi, and our entire team is winning back the house. that's what matters. it's not about personal aggrandizement or gain.

it's more for the democrats and people of our country. that's how we feel about this. everyone is really into the palace intrigue, but at the end of the day, first things first is to win back the house of representatives and let everything else work its way after that. >> if nancy pelosi wants to remain as leader or potentially become speaker, would you ever consider challenging her for those roles or would you rule that out? >> listen, i said, no, i don't foresee an opportunity like that really presenting itself. so i would say no. i really have said that before and last week i said it and i'll say it again. i don't really see that at this point in the future. >> let me ask you a policy question. there has been quite a bit of debate around the strikes in syria and the potential for -- the need for a new authorization for use of military force. is that something that you would support and do you think there is any chance anything like that could potentially come to the floor of the house? >> not only do i support it now, but like donald trump, i believe we need a new m.f. during the obama administration as well. i do think that we are well into our second decade of this same aumf being used for these military strikes. i certainly think if president trump wants to carry out additional attacks, he he needs to come to congress first and

get authorization. we need to exert what is our constitutional duty. we may not want to do it but it's something we're responsible for and we need to take back control of that and pass a aumf. >> the speaker, paul ryan, leaving. freed from some of the con -- constraints. he may bring a bill to help the daca kids. do you see yourself supporting something short of the dream act if it would allow those kids to stay here legally? >> i would have to see the legislation first. i would hope paul would use this opportunity as he's leving unfettered to bring decent and good legislation to the house floor. i think this is a unique opportunity for him to do that. if it's something i believe is in the best interest of my con -- constituents, i would have to see it.

>> republicans are suggesting democrats may not be willing sfort it because they feel like they may get political leverage out of it? >> that's rubbish. i believe we have said we want is for the dreamers, those who were brought here at very early age who are culturally americans to be given the opportunity to stay in this country and contribute towards our nation. so far the courts have rules against the president. we think that's good. it needs legislative solution and democrats have been about the legislative solution. we would have to see what it brings up between now and the end of this congress. >> thanks so much for your time. we'll talk to congressman jim hiens about the mueller investigation. i want to turn for a moment

i want to turn for a moment former first lady, barbara bush. according to a family spokesman after a series of hospitalizations, she will not seek additional medical treatment. she will focus on comfort care. this afternoon the family released a statement that reads in part, quote, it will not surprise those who know her that barbara bush has been a rock in face of her failing health. worrying not for herself thanks to her abidesing faith, but for others. she's surrounded by family she adores and appreciates the many kind messages and the prayers she is receiving. we'll keep you updated. mrs. bush is 92 years old. our thoughts and prayers are with us. coming up, james comey draws ♪ oh, look... another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles.

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