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talk about the hermit kingdom. but first we start with two images. the first an actual photograph of four presidents and their wives. the photograph was taken by paul morris at the funeral for barbara bush. in the center you can see george h.w. bush, behind him his son george, his wife laura, his arm around the clintons. on the edge melania trump and michelle obama arm in arm. the other image, you're going to have to conjure for yourself. the sitting president, donald trump at mar-a-lago, tweeting 29 times since friday about michael cohen, james comey, michael flynn, the special counsel, about a form aide that he calls drunk and drugged up loser. and what he calls a third-rate reporter named maggie haberman. he insists that she is someone who i don't speak to and have nothing to do with, but there they are in the oval office. she has interviewed him multiple

times. to talk more about all of this, i want to welcome in my panel. the co-founder of foundry strategies and msnbc political analyst rick tyler. pulitzer prize winning white house reporter for the washington post and msnbc contributor my friend ashley parker. nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken dilanian and white house correspondent for pbs news hour and msnbc contributor yamiche alsindor. this is the first time i've seen you on the air since you won your pulitzer last week. congratulations to you and all of your colleagues. >> thank you. >> at the washington post. but we've talked a lot about this theme that the president is isolated and increasingly as time has worn on he seems to be more and more isolated. i think it certainly set into sharp relief for me the difference between that photograph where he was obviously excluded and what has gone on over the course of the weekend. do you think this is the most isolated time yet for this president? >> yes and no. i mean, if you look at his west

wing and his white house, there's been stunning turnover, and not just across the board. but some of these people who are really sort of comforts to him, hope hicks, his trusted communications advisor, keith shiller, his long-time body guard who played a key role there, a number of people who he really knew and was familiar with and liked. that said, he still does what he's always done, he's always had a kind of small group of people around him and he still stays in touch with them late at night on the phone, when he's down at mar-a-lago. >> john kelly, his operator. >> he's surrounded by people, might not be the chief of staff wants him to be around but he's not purely isolated. >> ken dilanian, what potential damage has the president done with these tweets that have been sort of aimed across the board? ink chuck todd was talking this morning on "meet the press" how it feels like the focus is russia, russia, russia. the weight of this investigation sort of pressing down more on the president and the country as a whole.

>> you mean aside from damage to our national fabric, kasie? it makes him look guilty at the end of the day. the way he is continuing to attack anyone that he feels can hurt him in the russia investigation, anybody that seems to be a witness. although interestingly he hasn't attacked michael cohen yet because he believes his lawyer and long-time confidant may be on the fence and there may be a chance he can flip and there is a chance he might not flip. donald trump has words of support for him this week. >> yamiche, weigh in on this question. what was your take? we watched and talked, going to talk more about barbara bush later on in the show. sort of the dignity and grace that she showed on the national stage and the contrast with, you know, the events of the last year. >> i think there are two things. the first is there is this kind of stunning moment where president trump said people keep saying i'm going to fire robert mueller, i'm going to fire rod rosenstein and then rod rosenstein, but they still are here. they're still people that are working and i haven't fired them. it felt like for a couple

moments there, i would say -- i won't venture to say a whole day -- people thought oh, these people are going to have their jobs, they're not going to go anywhere. he talks about james comey setting off the investigation of the special counsel, it's built off an illegal act. what does that mean? it started to he will like, okay, is he building a case or dropping crumbs for why he's going to fire these two men and why he's going to try to stop this investigation? there is that one thing. during a funeral while everyone is watching the bushes, while everyone is kind of reminiscing on what the quorum is like and how beautiful the casket, i think the nation as a whole was kind of pausing to think about all of those things. you had donald trump go on a rant of all rants that really showed that the republican party is in completely different hands now. this is not the bushes. as much as people might have made fun of george bush and he had his on issues with katrina and the war on iraq, people thought he was someone who didn't have any decorum, was tearing away at the national

fabric. >> i think you're right, there has been some george w. bush nostalgia that has people papering over some of the things we remember of his presidency at the time. rick tyler, what's your point? i think yamiche's point is a good one. perhaps it is those people in the photograph who are going to be the ones that are permanently outside the frame. >> many of those people ran against each other, but they were still able to appear in the same room at the same time. they hadn't diminished or demeaned themselves to the point where it just would be embarrassing. now, the white house a little bit of cover saying the secret service would have created disruption on the funeral and it would have. but i think trump's presence there would have created a much larger disruption. and i do think the bushes who i have disagreed with many, many times, but it's hard to argue that they aren't honorable people. i remember visiting the bush library, which you can argue is a propaganda place, but -- >> perhaps any presidential library presents the best history possible. >> i read a letter by george

h.w. bush to his boys during watergate and he was concerned about the way his boys would perceive watergate. and it was a father instructing his younger sons and it was about character and honor and dignity, and we're lacking that in this white house right now. >> so, speaking of those tweets, in a series of other tweets throughout the weekend, the president is questioning the legality of the special counsel, claiming that james comey illegally leaked classified documents. he also slighted his own attorney general, quote, gop lawmakers asking sessions to investigate comey and hillary clinton. good luck with that request! meanwhile, the washington post reports, jeff sessions warned the white house he might have to leave his job if president trump fired his deputy, rod rosenstein. on the call reportedly to don mcgahn last weekend, sessions expressed the difficult position it would put him in. the call came after rosenstein approved the raid on cohen's offices and home. ken dilanian, what are the

ramifications of these potential dominos if sessions does think if rosenstein goes i have to resign, too? i do not think the congress would approve 509 attorney general in the first place. but that aside, i mean, it seems like that would, in fact, spark the crisis based on this reporting. >> absolutely. they certainly wouldn't approve an attorney general without that person promising to continue the mueller investigation as it's happening. so, leaving that aside, i mean, actually one of the implications of this sessions threatening to resign, is that a motivating factor for donald trump to make this happen? but look, that would absolutely cause a crisis in congress and in the executive branch. donald trump could put acting people in who could potentially remove robert mueller, but as james comey said many times this week, you would have to fire the entire justice department and the entire fbi to make this investigation go away. the documents, the findings, those would simply go -- if mueller was removed, they would go to u.s. attorney's offices, the fbi would still have them. they don't go away. the investigation doesn't close.

>> ashley, the rumor mill on rod rosenstein seems to ebb and flow, if it's the tides, i don't know what it is, every few days or a week we seem to get a new round of the president is about to do this, another report he thought about firing mueller at such and such additional time. where does that stand right now? how secure is rod rosenstein? >> first understand we have to put it in context. the president often sort of floats ideas and bounces things off of aides and friends and says, you know, i'm so fed up with him. i think i should fire him. what do you think? do you think i should fire him? and that doesn't -- >> what do you think? >> that doesn't mean it's necessarily going to happen. and as yamiche mentioned earlier he said in the press conference, look, people have been writing these stories four or five months and these two men are still here, aren't they? and that's true, and there is sort of an adage people say, pay attention to what the president says, not what he does. although sometimes he does do the thing he's saying, such as firing james comey. so, it's tenuous. >> right. you bring up comey as well.

i want to play a sound bite that we have from susan collins on "meet the press" this morning because it seems to me that in some ways comey did some damage to himself over the course of the last week. take a look. >> i cannot imagine why an fbi director would seek to essentially cash in on a book when the investigation is very much alive. he should have waited to do his memoir. >> i think this is an interesting assessment from a senator who is, by all accounts, you know, carries some antipathy towards donald trump. she raises the question -- we talked about this initially -- that does this potentially -- and ken dilanian, i'm interested to know your opinion on the impact of the investigation. politically, rick tyler, do you think that james comey did himself well over the course of the last week? is he -- did he survive politically as the stand-up courageous guy he set out to paint a portrait of himself in this book? >> i think it's kind of a break even. we have to remember something.

james comey was fired. they took away a man's career. a prosecutor that went all the way back to when he worked for rudy giuliani and before that. they took away his career. they also besmirched him publicly. he had a right to make his case. it couldn't be done in sound bites. i read his book. i disagree with some of the things he's done and said. >> did he make a mistake -- he thinks he made a mistake writing about the size of the president's hands and his hair and other things. >> i'm sure the publisher had more to do with that than james comey did. >> he certainly did take us inside the room. >> i think the book is interesting. it does give justification of why he did a separate press conference from the justice department about reopening the investigation of hillary clinton's e-mails, which i profoundly disagree with. but he has a rationale for that and people can decide on their own. but i think on balance, he probab

probably broke even. >> ken, is it your opinion he helped bob mueller or not? >> i think there is the potential. in terms of the impact of the investigation, if mueller didn't want this to happen, really put his foot down, it wouldn't have happened. it's not that these words are going to interfere with the investigation, but the damage that he may have done to his credibility, as you say, going to the size of donald trump's hands and the color of his skin and just appearing to be cashing in, i agree with everything rick said. susan collins is raising a fair question. to the extent he is a crucial witness in any obstruction of justice case to be made against donald trump, i think this could do some damage, yeah. >> and, yamiche, with the memos coming out after the book was released, the memos do seem to add credibility to whatever may have been taken away from him from his references that some people interpreted as maybe below the belt takes. the memos were coming out and democrats were clamoring for them.

it bolstered his case and damaged his credibility. >> it was such a partisan response to the memos. you had republicans jumping and running, it shows this is not obstruction of justice. nancy pelosi tweeting donald trump has a contempt for the rule of law. as a reporter, i saw, not only did we know about the details of the memo. there was a part where james comey said he would give him honest loyalty. he called me back a couple months later, couple weeks later. you remember that thing about woods i told but? basically, i remember that. it showed he was trying to hold onto his job. he's thinking of his career, ten years down the line i want this to be a whole thing i can close and i can serve. in reality i think if he's looking back, he's probably i think doesn't feel as great at the idea that he had that loyalty hanging over his head because the memos don't paint him as someone saying, donald trump, you cannot say that. that is completely unethical.

that's not there. i don't know it helped his credibility. >> ashley, what's your take, do you think the memos bolstered comey's stature across the board or is yamiche right? >> i don't know. that's a good question. my understanding, i'm not a legal expert, those memos written extelemunmporaneously c used as something happened and they would be very valuable to robert mueller and his team of investigators. the memos do bolster his account of what did happen. he's sort of been very consistent in that, what leaked out in the news reports, what we then saw. but as yamiche said, i do think everything is sort of at this point seen through a partisan lens. people will pick and choose what they want to take from that. >> it also came out in response to the republican investigators who want these hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of documents that rosenstein has no hope of fulfilling, which will set up a pretext of why he needs to be fired. there is talk of republicans

trying to impeach him. he says, okay, i'll send over the comey memos. he does. what happens? within one hour they are leaked. i mean, these supposedly illegal classified memos and now everybody gets to read them. they're a whole lot of nothing really. so what do you think the fbi -- what do you think is going to happen when the fbi sends over a million documents, many of which are classified? they're going to leak. th >> that's what capitol hill is best at sometimes. the president tweeted 29 times since friday. it can be hard to keep up so we here at "kasie d.c." distilled them to under 20 seconds for you and, oh, we put them in the president's own words. almost. >> nancy pelosi called numbers >> maggie haberman. stallone. drunk, drugged up. loser. washington post kim jong-un. southern white house. debbie wasser man schultz. johnson. and the dishonest media.

>> the dishonest media, much more to come on our show tonight. the state of play in tennessee is awkward. we'll talk about the unfolding mid terms there. plus, new reporting just out on the trump administration's approach to kim jong-un. but first, the dog eat dog world of the trump legal team. plus, join us on twitter at "kasie d.c." throughout the show. please, this is my favorite, join in using the hashtag dogs watching "kasie d.c." send your photos of dogs. we've had cats, birds, no iguanas. if you have one go ahead. everyone watching the show. we'll be back in just a minute. i'm your phone, stuck down here between your seat and your console, playing a little hide-n-seek. cold... warmer... warmer... ah boiling. jackpot. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, you could be picking up these charges yourself. so get allstate,

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former new york city mayor rudy giuliani and two other former federal prosecutors join president trump's legal team this week. of course, in the case of giuliani, the president is adding someone who served as one of his most reliable lieutenants during the 2016 campaign. >> i am sick and tired of the defamation of donald trump by the media and by the clinton campaign. i am sick and tired of it. this is a good man. this is a man with a big heart who loves people, all people. from the top to the bottom, from the middle to the side. >> oh, boy, did you miss him? and after the president's victory in november there was a flood of speculation about giuliani joining the incoming

trump administration. much of it fueled by giuliani himself. >> he offered me two very high positions in government which i turned doubt r down because i didn't want to do it. >> which ones? >> i don't like to mention because the other person becomes the second choice, but they were two very high positions in government. >> was one secretary of state? >> it was not. two very high positions, cabinet-level positions. >> when the dust settled, giuliani was on the outside looking in. now "the new york times" reports the president has repeatedly offered giuliani the job of attorney general during the transition, but that he turned it down because he wanted to be secretary of state. the times also reports that some close to the president now believe he could try to replace jeff sessions with giuliani in the coming months. ashley parker, put in context. what does it mean that giuliani is now on the legal team? >> that -- it's a great

question. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. part of our reporting and part of our understanding is that the president has been incredibly frustrated, seeing all these reports in the news about how his team has tried to hire sort of top notch white collar criminal defense attorneys, people to join his team and they've all said no. so the president grew frustrated. he became involved in the hiring process himself. he often likes people who look the part, sort of celebrities. giuliani fills all of those roles for him. he can be an attack dog. he's a great television surrogate. he's a big name. what is more clear, the key question is how good is he in the actual role that he's been hired for, which is going in and talking to bob mueller and helping bring a close to this investigation soon. >> right. ken? >> this is a really important point because if i was under federal criminal investigation, i would want a guy like abby lowell representing jared kushner who has gotten people acquitted and made deals. >> that seems to be the most important goal here, acquittal.

>> rudy giuliani for all his tal enlts, that's not what he does. he has n't practiced this kind of law for years and the president has not been able to secure the services of somebody with a great reputation in this field and i think it's going hurt him down the line because the mueller team are a bunch of killers. they are not fooling around. they are some of the best prosecutors in the country and you need somebody of equal status to deal with them. >> ted olson, somebody they tried to get to join the team absolutely wouldn't do it. yamiche, it falls under the category of larry kudlow joining as economic advisor. he does, to ashley's point, likes people he sees on tv. >> he does like people he sees tv. i imagine he likes what he's going to get from rudy giuliani when it comes to the tv portion of his job. somebody who is loutd, loud, critical of robert mueller, someone who will not be hard to find when reporters are trying to get quotes. but in terms of what he's going to do legally for him, i'm with ashley. i have no idea what the

qualifications are -- if he can fill those qualifications in the way that the president needs him to because at pbs we've had the same reporting everyone else has, which is that we've talked to lawyers who have turned down the president, which is a remarkable thing to say. i think a pretty remarkable, like everybody else can tune in. you're the president, you can't get a lawyer, that's kind of remarkable to me. >> yeah, let's talk a little about the president's other lawyer perhaps, maybe the important piece of all this right now, michael cohen. and, rick tyler, there seems to be increasing concern, although we did point out the president has kind of held his fire around michael cohen the past couple days hoping he can convince him not to flip. >> there are a lot of lawyers who want to work for michael cohen, though. [ laughter ] >> rudy giuliani may have been first choice for two cabinet secretaries. he's 15th choice for the president's defense team. i'm sorry, what was your question? [ laughter ] >> michael cohen who apparently is -- people do want to represent him, in your view.

it seems like the president is really extraordinarily focused on whether cohen is going to decide to cooperate with bob mueller. not with bob mueller directly, but the southern district of new york. >> if the president hasn't done anything wrong he has nothing to worry about. if he has done something wrong, he should worry a great deal about michael cohen. michael cohen always professes loyalty. i want to mention something about loyalty we don't often talk about in the city. it's a one-way street. in general most politicians don't have loyalty to the people who have been loyalty to them. after the politician cuts their ties, that loyalty will wear thin. if michael cohen is in any legal jeopardy and his freedom can be taken away, i don't think there is any doubt in my mind that he would cut a deal. >> the other thing is there's no loyalty when you're facing ten years in prison. if you don't believe that, ask sammy who flipped on the gotty family. that was the a case mueller was involved in. >> and james comey. >> he said he would take a

bullet for the president. stormy daniels's president said it's one thing before the bullet. >> and president trump hasn't treated him so well the last couple years. >> maggie haberman won a pulitzer prize, they aren't unnamed sources. michael cohen was treated terribly, he was treated like garbage. i'm sure the president is thinking back, man, this is someone i've kind of not been super nice to and he could have a lot of leverage on me. >> all right. there he is, the man himself who you may have seen a tweet up on the screen a minute ago. he said, when asked on the street whether or not -- how things were going, he said, well, it's a lot. just ahead, no secretary of state, no problem. we'll talk about how the trump administration managed to get pyongyang to put nuclear tests on the table. bill richardson joins me live next. don't forget to catch headliners. michael flynn, msnbc's chris

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highly anticipated meeting with kim jong-un, new reporting out tonight from the "wall street journal" suggests the white house won't lift sanctions until north korea has made progress dismantling its nuclear program. the north korean leader announced friday that his regime has suspended all nuclear and long range missile tests. kim also announced he'll shutdown a nuclear test site on the northern part of the country saying, quote, it it's done its job. estopp he stopped short of saying it will dismantle it. president trump insisting north korea has, quote, agreed to denuclearization. to discuss all of this i want to welcome in former u.s. ambassador to the united nations bill richardson. thank you for your time tonight. i appreciate it. >> thank you very much, kasie. >> i want to saturday simply tau as someone who has dealt with

the north koreans in the past, is there some reason to trust they're going to do what they say they're going to do in this case? >> this is how the north koreans negotiate. they throw out trial balloons. they throw out favorable press of what they're going to do. and then sometimes, most of the time they don't do it. this is how they kind of posture themselves. but what i think is important, this is positive. the fact that they're saying they're not dismantling their nuclear weapons. they might freeze missiles, nuclear activity, conventional weapons, they're going to shut down their reactor. i think it's important that we have a strategy. and the president shouldn't take the bait of responding, also his spokesman gloating the reason the north koreans are doing this is because they've been pressured. just steady, get a plan, strategize. it's going to -- they're not going to denuclearize, especially in the first meeting. probably it's going to take years if they ever do.

>> were you encouraged to learn that mike pompeo had met secretly with kim jong-un, as you point out, if it is the case they're not going to d denuclearize starting with this first meeting? does the president walking into that room essentially mean that we've reached the limit of what we're able to do diplomatically? that's usually the last step in this process. >> yes, i mean, this is an unusual process from the top to the bottom. and i supported the president when he took this gamble and risk and agreed to the meeting. now, i was encouraged by pompeo going to north korea. they talked about probably not full substance, but they talked about probably where the summit will be held, when logistical issues that are very important. the fact that kim jong-un is involved himself in the negotiations. it's good he doesn't have a nuclear negotiator. the fact that he received somebody lower rank, secretary

of state designate i think was good. so, i think things are moving in the right direction. i just worry that the white house, one, is impatient, has no strategy. the president has to respond to every little news item. he should just let pompeo develop a strategy and stop tweeting every -- every day about something kim jong-un does. the north koreans do this. they're good at it. but in the end i think it's going two individuals sitting together and trying to make it a deal and that's what's key, that's good. i'm going to give him credit for this summit. i think it's the right thing to do. >> what do you know about kim jong-un as a person? the man who is going to be sitting across from president trump that you think will help people understand what the president is facing. what does the president need to know about his personality? >> well, first that kim jong-un -- i've never met him. but i've known a lot of officials there. but he is not like his father.

he's not like a rug merchant, deal maker. okay, we do this, this is a bargaining chip. i think this man has been underestimated. i think he's had a plan all along. i think he's a rational actor. i think he wants to eventually maybe make a deal on nuclear weapons so that he can improve his economy, which is shattered, which is in very bad shape. so, i don't think we should under estimate him. what the president should do more than anything is have a plan. not be impulsive, not shoot from the hip. just have some very clear objectives and goals and then have a plan b because the worst thing that can happen if 24 summit is a disaster and then we're going to go back, not just the status quo, but to something worse, which we all don't want. >> that is exactly what i was going to ask you to wrap up here. what do you -- in your view -- is a realistic worst case scenario if this goes wrong for the u.s.? >> well, there's no agreement on

anything that is missile or nuclear related. i suspect, and there will be an agreement on getting the three americans out, hopefully remains of some of our soldiers, some human rights initiatives between north and south. i think what's very important, kasie, is the south korean, north korean summit that is going to take place very soon. we'll more or less what north korea is willing to do through the summit with south korea. although kim jong-un may have a plan b after the south korean summit. you know, they're all over the place. this is why we should not react to their every move. but so far their every move has been positive. so, you know, take some credit, but don't gloat like the white house is doing. oh, it's because we pressured him and we're great negotiators. that's not the way to negotiate with north korea. >> bill richardson, thank you so much for your time and your insights tonight. i really appreciate it.

>> thank you, kasie. thank you. >> still to come, new polling shows a growing gap for republicans and a key voting block. we'll explain. and later. >> michael flynn, general flynn, is a wonderful man. i think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media. it's very, very unfair what's happened to general flynn the way he's been treated and the documents and papers that were illegally -- i stress that, illegally leaked, very, very unfair. >> michael flynn tries to make a comeback. will the president have his back when he does? "kasie d.c." back in just a moment. captivating exteriors dynamic lighting elevated comfort powerfully efficient and one more thing the world comes with it ♪you can go your own way...

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three cleaning agents dissolve, lift and rinse away food the first time. new cascade platinum. kyle, we talked about this. there's no monsters. but you said they'd be watching us all the time. no, no. no, honey, we meant that progressive would be protecting us 24/7. we just bundled home and auto and saved money. that's nothing to be afraid of. -but -- -good night, kyle. [ switch clicks, door closes ] ♪ i told you i was just checking the wiring in here, kyle. he's never like this. i think something's going on at school. -[ sighs ] -he's not engaging. welcome back to "kasie d.c." joining me on set is john, director of polling at harvard university's school of politics. he's here with new numbers in the school's survey of millennials. sir, welcome to the show. >> thank you. >> i'm a bigad meyerer of the work you all are doing.

we had a little of this conversation on morning joe earlier in the week. your numbers revealed some remarkable things about the institutions that millennials trust and don't trust, which is to say it seems like government and old school media is out, and amazon is in. >> in a word, yes. but i think it speaks to something much bigger than that, kasie. for example, two-thirds of millennials now including post millennials in the survey as well, survey of 18 to 29-year-olds have more fear and hope of the state of american democracy. and the organizations in the institutions on the bottom part of that list very much are the reasons in which they have that fear. congress, the federal government, the president, and the media. >> yes, congress does not fare particularly well, 17% say they trust the congress. you also ran some numbers on the fbi and the d.o.j., 42% saying think trust the fbi, 45 saying the trust the department of

justice. have those numbers dipped in light of the president's attack on the institution s? >> this is the first time we asked about those institutions as part of the survey. generally the organizations that the president has been attacking have been increasing at least relative to the last year. the media compared to the last couple years is up 6 points the last five or six years. starting from a preload base, but still up. we've seen the same thing when we look across a couple different issues as well. >> would you say millennials are not buying the president's use of the term "fake news" sne >> they're not buying that. they're concerned about the intake of news, what's real, what's fake, et cetera. but it's almost like one of newton's laws which is for every action there is a reaction and i think what we're seeing in this poll is the reaction of young people is to, is to think about how to organize and then to show up in november. >> rick tyler, to bring you into this conversation as well, this -- your polling seems to indicate that republicans are digging a major hole with

millennials. do you think there is any hope, rick tyler? what do you think your party needs to do to fix some of these numbers? 69% of millennials would prefer democratic control congress, 28% republican. >> that's a huge problem. if i'm wrong, millennial generation is now the largest voting generation and will continue to be and the republicans have got to figure out how to win them back and how to have a vision for the future. part of the administration is it's to tactical, nobody knows where we're going. there's no aspiration for what we're working for. and couple that with the things that millennials look toward and believe in, this administration seems antithetical to things they believe and trust in. >> what are you finding are the differences among, you said you included post millennials. so, people keep telling me i'm a millennial. >> you are a millennial, no question about it. >> but i don't think i have anything in common with the youngest millennials. how are the people -- i might arg argue spend a lot more time on snapchat than i do, by the way.

you found some interesting differences with the group that's behind us. >> i do think that from an ideological or type ology point of view, there aren't tremendous difrss between people in their 30s and 20s. the difference is more around the use of technology. you're absolutely right. instagram, snapchat far more likely to be part of the average habit, daily habit of a post-millennial folks in their teens and early 20s. but the millennials that came of age post 9/11 became past of the movement of the obama campaign, which are the most reliable democratic voters in the electorate. they're in their mid 30s and now they're older, have families, careers. this group is locked down for democrats maybe for the next couple decades. >> certainly more probably more likely to vote as they get older. yamiche, you and i covered bernie sanders together which was an interesting study in where many of these millennial voters seem to be. what did you learn on the campaign trail about the

difficulty republicans have with this age group? >> i think the main difficulty, especially when it comes to president trump is that millennials are people are inkreetsingly people of color and increasingly are about embracing diversity and embracing diversity not just in race, but in gender and in sexual orientation. and when you think about the conservative republicans, i'm not talking about what president trump might be doing on twitter, but the republican ideals. people are having whole platforms about abortion, having whole platforms about maybe school choice where some people think of that as kind of digging into segregation and allowing people to segregate themselves educationally, millennials are looking at that. not only do we not like the characters of the republican party, but their actual policies don't seem to match with what i believe in. bernie, what's so interesting is he was so unabashedly progressive. i think hillary clinton had a lot of things they had in common. there were a lot of things

bernie ran on democrats secretly wanted to say, bernie said them out loud. he said free college? we'll say free college. that's what got millennials excited about bernie. >> one issue that stuck out in particular to me, john, is your polling on gun laws. 77% of millennials said they thought that this was an important issue. 64% of them want stricter gun laws. over -- almost 60% support an assault weapons ban. did you get the sense this does have the potential to become a voting issue for millennials? we have not necessarily seen that be the case. >> it has every bit of potential. 25% of the 77% say it's the most important issue. what is interesting about this issue is we have been tracking this now for over a decade. a lot of the attitudinal shift has been happening already. we saw a 20-point across the board attitudinal shift in democrats and republicans on issues related to gun control and assault weapon ban. republicans start in the 20s,

they're now in the 40s. democrats in the 50s now in their 70s. what we're seeing is i think the parkland students and the way in which they and other students have organized has essentially accelerated this and turned it from an ideological opinion shift to something that could motivate millions of young people in november. >> so, speaking of difficulties for republicans, this weekend has underscored some of the awkwardness that died in the wool old school republicans are dealing with now. for example, mitt romney suffered an embarrassing, if minor set back, in his bid for the u.s. senate. he narrowly lost a nomination battle yesterday during utah's republican convention. it means he'll be forced into a june primary race against state lawmaker mike kennedy. and then there is retiring tennessee senator bob corker. he upset some republicans this week after praising the democrat running for his seat, former governor phil. take a look at what corker said when he was asked this morning

why marcia black burn, the republican, is better. >> most people in our state, it is a red state. we'll focus on the first vote she makes, and that's the vote to elect the majority leader. >> senator, that's not a ringing endorsement of marcia blackburn to say she should be elected because she's going to vote for mitch mcconnell. >> well, dana, i'm supporting the nominee. i've worked with the nominee for sometime and i don't know what else to say. >> okay. we'll leave it there. >> rick tyler, do you have anything else to say? he >> he wouldn't even say her name. i would say he forgot her name, but he literally would not say her name. >> there is, of course, we should say there is some back story here. he is good friends with the republican nominee -- rather,

the democratic nominee, ashley parker. but this has been -- started when the christian scientist monitor said i'm going to vote for marcia blackburn, but i'm not going to say anything bad about my democratic friend. it was leaked mitch mcconnell sent him a message, the message doesn't seem to have registered. >> you spend more time on capitol hill than i do, but the thing that is amazing watching him, there is a small group of members of congress who are basically retiring or not likely to be in office for that much longer who feel free to say publicly what everyone is saying privately. so, you know, you talk to members privately off the record. on tv as you say they are on message. he has that liberation and it's kind of fun to watch. >> quickly, mitt romney, i think you and i kind of both were like, oh, you know, we watched mitt romney lose a major race. there is not really -- it seems as though he's still in very good position for the primary. but this is somewhat unfortunate

considering his history. >> yes, exactly. i mean, by all accounts he's still, as you said, in good position pofor the primary. there is something demoralizing about the man for president not being able to finish first. >> in utah. >> in utah. and not quite his home state, but a state that has a lot of good will for him and his family. >> right. a very, very narrow loss to the state senator mark kennedy. so, still some road to hoe for mitt romney coming up in the next couple months. thank you for your insight. i appreciate it. rick tyler. thank you, both. i appreciate it. when we return on "kasie dc," remembering the remarkable life of barbara bush. once there was an organism so small

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bush was real and that's why people admired her and loved her so. >> that was former florida governor jeb bush yueulogizing s mother, barbara bush, yesterday. four former presidents joined hundreds of other mourners at the private service inside the nation's largest episcopal church. mrs. bush was at the heart of the bush family dynasty and just the second woman in american history to watch both ha a husband and a son serve as president. and the woman known inside her family as the enforcer was reportedly in great spirits during her final days. a source close to the family told cbs news she was alert and having conversations over bourbon the night before she died. and her eldest son, president george w. bush, offered this recollection of the very last time he saw her. >> we had a wonderful visit. she was strong, lucid. >> funny. still. >> funny. she and i were needling each other. the doctor came in, she turned to the doctor and said you want to know why george w. is the way

he is? the doctor looked somewhat surprised. she said, i drank and smoke when i was pregnant with him. >> former president george w. bush about his mother. in our next hour, we'll have the best of the sunday shows in the kasie dvr and talk about the return of michael flynn. "kasie dc" back after this. >> i have no fear of death. which is a huge comfort because we're getting darn close and i don't have a fear of death for my precious george or for myself because i know that there is a great god and i'm not worried about that.

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we're living in a tabloid presidency. >> there are a number of legal developments this week. >> michael cohen might turn on trump and cooperate with prosecu prosecutors. >> the president also called an unknown person a drunk, drugged up loser. >> i don't know who he's referring to there. >> the president is going to tweet something like that, shouldn't he own it and explain it? >> he owns it. >> the president gets advice on what he should or should not tweet. >> i wish he'd tweet 20% less. >> what is up with your husband's tweets? >> raise a lot of things about corgis and philadelphia eagles, too. fascinating to me kcnn would go there. >> i would -- >> it was meant to harass and embarrass. >> absolutely not.

>> you bought him into this, this ought to be fun moving forward, dana. >> progress toward an unprecedented nuclear summit with north korea. >> kim's surprise announcements only saturday morning he intends is to freeze his missile program. this is a good public relations move. >> kim jong-un has learned about public relations. >> we also, though, have cautious optimism. >> easily reversible decision. >> it's the beginning. >> somehow or another -- >> tell me why republican marsha blackburn is better to represent your state? >> i think most people in our state will focus on the first vote she makes and that's the vote to elect the majority leader. >> that's not a ringing endorsement. >> well, i don't know what else to say. >> i don't know what else to say. i want to welcome in my panel for this hour, associate editor and columnist for real clear politics a.b. stoddard. "washington post's" ashley parker. joining us senior political reporter for yahoo! john ward and ken dilanian returns as

well. a.b. stor stoddard? >> bob corker had the most interesting journey saying basically the president was a threat to the nation, he's mentally unstable, he's an adult daycare center. >> right. >> really, really just unbelievably adolescent tweets back at him, then he was going to maybe be drawn back into the fray, wanted to repair relations with the president and he -- you can just tell he -- he got his sort of retiring senator fever back. and when he was approached by the senate majority leader to not say anything nice again, you can tell it got his back up because he wasn't even trying today. he was practically outright giggling. >> john ward, there are not very many republicans right now who are willing to actually say in public the same thing hat they're willing to say in private about this president. >> which has been true for a long time. yeah. >> bob corker seems to be one of the few as a.b. points out who now seems to be at least willing to mostly speak his mind.

>> yeah, i mean, he's one of the few. this has been a dynamic since trump was the nominee or even before that. i mean, the republicans have been saying things in private that they haven't said in public and this is the frustration of many people. you know, at the same time, we're starting to see some resistance to trump's nominations so there is some institutional resistance on that in that sense, but, yeah, this is sort of the through the looking glass element of washington. in the trump era. >> right. there were -- there was a couple reports, at least one report i saw this week that canvased many republican senators and said are you ready to endorse the president for re-election? there were a few more hems and hawes than i expected and may have partly to do with the russia investigation. we turn to the newly released comey memos revealing preech iiy unreported conversations comey had in the white house according some about michael flynn. comey writes during a late january dinner with the president mr. trump told a story about flynn failing to tell him for several days that he had

received a congratulatory phone call from a foreign leader. it was an admission that apparently frustrated the president. comey writes, "in telling the story, the president pointed his fingers at his head and said, the guy has some serious judgment issues." and in another mem know fro fro february 8th comey writes about a conversation with chief of staff reince priebus says a he asked, "do you have a fisa order on mike flynn? i paused for a few seconds but illustrated i'd answer here but this is a kind of question that had to be asked and answered through established channels." meanwhile, the president tweeted about flynn on friday writing, "so general michael flynn's life can be totally destroyed while shady james comey an leak and lie and make lots of money from a third-rate woman that nev book that never should have been written? is that the way it is supposed to work? i don't think so. politico is reporting flynn is engaging in a comeback tour of sorts giving speeches and

endorsing congressional candidates around the country. ashley parker, is the president -- does he still feel as though -- clear hi he feels that flynn was treated unfairly. but does he feel like he still owes michael flynn loyalty or is this -- i feel like i'm probably going to answer my own question here, is this all about him? >> yeah, i mean, i think -- i think he genuinely has been frustrated with the way michael flynn has been treated, he sort of felt it was unfair all along, that's why you have him saying to james comey i hope you concede to let this go. but, again a lot of this, flynn in many ways is sort of the poster child for the allegations of russia collusion, probably obstruction in the probably. in some ways it feels like defending flynn and saying he's been unfairly treated, flynn is a proxy for himself. the president feels he has been unfairly treated. >> ken dilanian, weigh in on this, i mean, it's a bit

remarkable for michael flynn to be back on the campaign trail after what he faced with this investigation. >> i think it speaks to a country where there are different truths. one version of reality is mike flynn was railroaded by the deep state. >> right. >> you know, by this horribly unfair investigation. and we saw this before a little bit with oli north, remember the iran contra figure, became a right wing media hero, pe bestselling author. mike flynn could go down this road. what's interesting about this moment, we don't know what mike flynn told the mueller investigation about donald trump, what he gave to get this sweet deal, facing between zero to six months in prison for lying to the fbi. there was reporting about other things he could have done involving the government of turkey, lobbying deals, none of which he was charged with. the thinking of the time is, wow, he must have a lot to give on donald trump. look like that's not the case. >> certainly sli trump is not worried about it anymore.

>> exactly. exactly. >> jon ward, talk a little bit about many what are what ken said at the tonight, this idea that we're a country that tin i living completely separate truths. to focus on republicans, i mean, it seems as though, you know, for republicans here in washington who want to be critical of trump, who are trying to win primary elections, you know, they want to focus on what they believe to be a set of facts that, you know, they may share that set of facts with democrats and the rest of the trump republican party is increasingly operating in a completely different world. >> this is a problem that has its roots in proliferation of media outlets and the internet. this is not a new problem in one sense, in another sense, trump and, you know, the people that -- >> they didn't have a president in h the white house before. >> that's correct. trump has been the one who through using twitter, president obama, let's back up for a minute, when they came to office they say we're going to go

around the mainstream media. trump is doing that mainly through twitter, basically where obama would occasionally sort of diss the mainstream media, diss the woes"washington post," cabl news, in a disdainful -- >> right, like a upuppet. >> trump is saying let's blow it all up. let's face it, conservatives, some part of them have been frustrated with the mainstream media for a very long time. and trump sort of built on that mounting frustration. >> right. let's talk a little bit about another potential in this enemy of the president. fired deputy fbi director andrew mccabe who is fighting back amid mounting pressure from president trump and congressional republicans. according to his lawyer, mccabe is planning to sue the trump administration for defamation, wrongful termination and possible civil claims. other civil claims. his lawyers also accusing mccabe's opponents including president trump of slander. that comes as the justice

department's inspector general has recommended a criminal investigation into whether mccabe lied to federal officials about a leak to a reporter. here's what mccabe's former boss, james comey, told rachel maddow about that earlier this week. >> there were two people who could authorize disclosures. the director and the deputy director. so andy had the authority to speak to the media and to authorize communications with the media. >> do you think he improperly spoke to the media in that capacity then? >> i don't know for sure. i know that he didn't tell me about it. didn't ask me about it before he did it. i think the inspector general ee's report is right in that respect. i would have respected that. i think he had the authority to do that. >> mccabe's lawyer says mccabe did tell comey he was pushing back on stories about the hillary clinton investigation. and axios reports mccabe and his lawyers are looking for ways to release e-mails and phone call transcripts between the two men to back up their claim. a.b. stoddard, who's right here?

i mean, this i.g. report was pretty difficult for mccabe. >> it really is. i think what comey said matters, which is that, you know, mccabe revealed something to the "wall street journal" that was really tough on the clinton campaign, the last thing they wanted to read. doesn't exactly help the candidate -- i mean, it would be seen to be helpful to the candidacy then of donald trump. now the donald trump administration wants to punish him for that. the point is she lied about it so when they say not full candor and everything, it is that level of an offense within the fbi when you're a high-ranking official. lying is not forgiven. so i think comey's had a rough couple weeks. i don't think he's done himself -- i think he's done himself a great disservice in terms of his own credibility. i think that if they can prove with e-mails and texts that he didn't lie, somehow, and he's going to challenge the inspector general, then maybe in the end, you know, he exonerates himself. if you get caught lying as a high-ranking official at the

fbi, you're going to pay a price for that. >> wouldn't it seem as though the inspector general would already have these e-mails? >> i was going to say, hawhat e-mails and texts they didn't zr access to. what's fascinating to me, james comey and andrew mccabe are allies, friends or associates, and comey defended mccabe when he was fired unceremoniously a couple days before he was going to retire. comey clearly said there that the inspector general was right that mccabe lied to him about -- mccabe claims comey authorized and talked to this reporter about a pending criminal investigation which is a rare thing in the fbi, not supposed to happen. >> it never happens, right? i feel like every time we talk to pete williams on tv -- >> that's right. >> -- he always says nothing, they won't comment, criminal investigation. >> there's an exception if it's in the public interest. the inspector general found this was not in the public ice interest. his wife was running as a democrat. the "wall street journal" was looking into why is he looking into a republican presidential candidate? >> yeah, john ward, what's your

view -- a.b. stoddard alluded to this, how comey handled himself. when the book came out, excerpts, comey was viewed as the picture he was trying to paint of somebody who was more loyal to, you know, the country, to honor, to these sort of ideas of decency and comparing himself inevitably to president trump but he ended up on defense over some of the smaller items, the, you know, focus on the president's hands, for example. >> yeah, the stuff about the president's hands came across as petty. i have to say, i personally found it a little surprising that his first interview, i believe, was with stephanopoulos. i found that surprising because if you're looking to persuade, you know, more than half the country, you've got to recognize going back to, you know, the debate during the republican primary. a lot of conservatives were angry with the way gorge handeo handled a question about reproductive rights and not the first time conservatives had a

problem with stephanopoulos. i wouldn't see stephanopoulos as the first beperson to go to on your tour if you're looking to persuade more than democrats. i was a little surprised with some of the other places he went. it's hard to come across as anything other than sanctimonious when you're holding yourself out as a paragon of virtue. >> an interesting point. i want to turn to another one of our colleagues because we watched yet again this weekend as the president assailed a reporter over a story that he didn't like. his target this time, the also pulitzer prize winning white house reporter for "the new york times," maggie haberman. haberman co-wrote a story on friday about what the paper describes as the president's poor treatment of michael cohen over the years. haberman and her colleagues report that there are now concerns among some of the president's advisers that cohen will cooperate with federal officials. in a series of tweets yesterday, the president called haberman, quote, a third-rate reporter who doesn't speak to and has nothing to do with. he called some of his former

aides even worse. the "times" was careful to note that haberman has interviewed the president three times on the phone and twice in the oval office. that is a tweet from her colleague at the "times," michael schmidt, who notes the president, quote, said who i don't speak to and have nothing to do with, that, of course, the famous trump thumbs up and that is our friend, maggie, friend of -- ashley parker, this is something that the president does not infrequently. he does, in fact -- there are some reporters he has talked to for years and built these relationships with and now in public, you know, turns around and trashes them. >> yeah, absolutely. and i think any time the president of the united states attacks you especially by name, as he often does with maggie haberman, i think it can be jarring and uncomfortable, but if there's one thing we've learned covering him is when the president calls something fake news, it doesn't mean it's fake. it doesn't actually mean the facts are incorrect at all. what it means in the case of this fantastic story maggie and the "times" did on michael cohen

is it's true and hit on clear truth and just so happens too have gotten under the president's skin. now, i don't know if all of this supporters know that, but when you see these tweets it means someone's written something true more often than not and that truthing has driven the president absolutely crazy. >> it's something he's trying to push back on. ken dilanian, quickly on michael cohen and that "times" story where they essentially said, look, this guy, they haven't -- the president's been nice to this guy so it means he's more likely when the feds come knocking and say, hey, we can put you in jail for how many many years orcohen has to talk to them. >> that's less of a factor than the idea he's facing many years in prison. he's got a young son, talked to me about taking his son to ucla, a basketball player, the idea he's not going to be able to see his kid's baseball games for many, many years, that's what's going to get him to flip in the end if that's where he stands. ahead this hour, an election to watch, a race in arizona that

comes down to two women. plus, jon ward's new piece two years in the making. his autopsy of the american political parties. first, david farenhold joins us with his latest reporting that asks a simple question, what ever happened to trump neckt neckties? a look at the once proud trump merchandise empire. >> i want to put that to rest, so you have the water, you have the steak the, you have the airline that i sold. i mean, what's wrong with selling? every once in a while you can sell something. you have the wines and all of that. and trump university. we're going to start it up as soon as i win the lawsuit. does that make sense? i mean, that's it. okay. mom? dad? hi! i had a very minor fender bender tonight in an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. but what a powerful life lesson. and don't worry i have everything handled. i already spoke to our allstate agent, and i know that we have accident forgiveness. which is so smart on your guy's part. like fact that they'll just... forgive you...

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when it comes to great steaks, i've just raised the stakes. one bite and you'll know exactly what i'm talking about. and believe me, i understand steaks. i have very successful companies. let me just say. trump steaks. where the steaks? do we have steaks? you want to take one, we'll charge you about, what, 50 bucks a steak. nah. >> just one of many many name branded products marketed by the president in a past life. as it turns out, the steaks from that campaign rally were reportedly from a west palm beach meat purveyor called bush brothers. sharper image which used to sell the president's steak brand no longer offers them. their website reads, "unfortunately, trump steaks are no longer available but their legacy endures."

and trump steaks aren't alone in becoming extinct. a new piece from the "washington post" reports that almost all trump branded goods are gone. according to the "post", in 2015, trump listed 19 companies paying him to produce or distribute trump branded consumer goods. but in recent weeks, just two said they are still selling them. for more on the state of the trump brand, the author of that piece, "washington post" political reporter and msnbc political analyst david fahrenthold and our panel is with us. david, this is a fun story. why are they not selling trump-branded goods anymore? >> well, the original reason is donald trump was a bad merchandiser. one of the rules of merchandising martha stewart knows well and other people know well, you should sell things people think you'd be good at. donald trump began with suits and ties. people saw him wearing suits and ties on "the apprentice." he became what people in the business call a label slapper, put his name on everything.

there was at one point a trump-branded urine test which you could send back for donald trump branded vitamins. there was furniture, vodka -- >> a urine test? >> yeah. people in the world, you know who can analyze my urine, donald trump. so he was a bad merchandiser. so even before he ran for office, people were, like, sick of his name. they didn't trust him to sell them, you know, bed linens or whatever. so -- >> this decline began before he ran. >> then when he ran for office, he made himself politically toxic to the merchandising partners still with him, macy's, serta, made a ton of money off trump-branded mattresses. he was already declining and wasn't enough money to tolerate the relationship. a lot of them started cutting ties. >> this is not a situation where the president says, okay, i'm the president of the united states, now it would be unseem bli for these various things to carry my name, therefore, i don't want them produced. it was rather the producer said, sorry, we're not doing it anymore. >> in most cases. a few cases where the producers

were reluctant to talk to us at all about the fact hay made trump products and said we don't make them anymore, it's all we're going to say. may have been some that trump, himself, pulled out of but seems like in most cases tv the merchandiser, not him. >> is there anything with trump's name on it you can buy now? >> two things. one one, a line of furniture, a company based in turkey makes trump-branded furniture. there's a company in panama that makes trump-branded bed linens. >> people have been sending you some of these products. >> yes. >> dwroid you get furniture? >> no, not yet. vy coui have coffee, trump the game. >> i can vouch for this. i sit next to him at the "post" and on this table we're slowly accumulating trumka lop cologne trump coffee pods pop -- >> i will say the day trump announced his presidential campaign, i was there and they

were still selling trump-branded cologne and asked a few folks outside at trump thundershower who attended the rally what they smelled like. several actually said it smelled like success. >> have you smelled the cologne? >> i have smelled it. it smells like old spice. it doesn't smell terrible. it doesn't real like any special sort of cologne. if you read the description, it has every ingredient, smells like ice ginger, bean -- >> i guess it's in the nose of the beholder. >> exactly. >> on a more serious note, the president obviously has his name on many buildings, hotels and there are some instances where foreign leaders are availing themselves of these trump properties and he is benefiting financially. mar-a-lago, the trump hotel in washington, d.c. for example, the philippines has stayed. what have you found about that and what ethical questions surround it? >> well, the biggest ethical question here is the constitution says there's something called the emoluments

clause, federal officers can't take payments from federal governments. a debate of whether a federal government renting a ballroom from trump can -- a lawsuit going on with d.c. and maryland attorney generals have sued trump for violating the emoluments clau s clause. the fact a couple middle ear stn country held celebrations at the trump hotel have come up in the briefs and part of the reason the judge pushed the case forward. now in june, there's a legal argument about that case on june 11th, an important legal -- the philippines is having a big national celebration of the trump hotel. >> is there a special concern -- let's look at mar-a-lago. there's a history of presidents having a second home, of potentially hosting people there but this is unique in that president charges for the rooms at mar-a-lago. >> you can rent it out. that wasn't true before. yes, so we vhaven't seen a lot f foreign governments using that but a change in the mixture of

who uses mar-a-lago, people who used to rent it out, most of them are gone. like with the merchandisers, they don't want to tolerate that relationship with trump. too politically painful. what's come in are trump's political allies, both the rnc which spent a lot of money there, christian broadcasti ini network, christian conservative charities came in to support trump and push him in their direction. >> ashley parker, the president has been concerned about business interests even in the white house. is there any chance he's not watching -- i know he says officially i'm out of it, my kids are kind of running it. however, there has to be some lasting damage being done here. and there is, you know, some future time where he will not be president of the united states. >> yeah, this is something he is paying very close attention to. and i think you're right, as dave said, it's sort of mixed. there's some business he's potentially lost then there's other business he's brought in because of his perch of president of the united states. this is not quite what you're

referring to put the reason the raid on michael cohen, this personal attorney, was so upset ing -- it crossed his business and his family and that's the thing he cares most about. >> really good point. david fahrenthold, thanks for your time. really appreciate it. just ahead, jon ward reported his new piece for the last two years. when we come back, we talk about whether the modern political party is dead and why that might be bad for the country. this is the ocean. just listen. (vo) there's so much we want to show her. we needed a car that would last long enough to see it all.

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i think we need a serious discussion about the role of superdelegates, clearly the current situation is undemocratic, it is ill-advised, and it needs to change. >> that was senator bernie sanders during the 2016 campaign challenging the role of superdelegates as undemocratic. i heard him say that many, many, many times. between that democratic rallying cry and president trump campaigning as the ultimate anti-establishment candidate, the political party system on both sides of the aisle is increasingly weakened. but after two years after reporting, yahoo!'s jon ward writes the chipping away of party power may be hitting our

democracy, writes, "reforms that have weakened parties and given voters more input counterintuitively made politics more opaque and less democratic." john, what's your argument here, why is this the case? >> there are many zrands strand, so many deep cultural things that go into why our politics has gone the way it's gone over the last half century. i'd say i began this process after watching the primary. what struck me is at every stage of the primary, whether it was the voting in the states, or whether it was the convention delegates or whether it was the party elites, at every stage, donald trump was preferred by about a third. that goes for the voters, goes for the delegates at the convention, where you remember they went into the convention, stl there was 900 out of 2,400 delegates that were really committed. >> that were trump committed. >> exactly. of course, we know the establishment didn't really want him. and i watched this and i thought, why can't a party that really doesn't want this candidate stop him from being its nominee?

and so that kind of started me on this process of looking back at the history. to me, as a non polysci major, i was a lit major. i think most people don't realize for about 50, 60 years, we've been reforming and reforming and reforming. there have been a few counterreforms, introduction of superdelegates in the '80s. >> what are the ones 24 s that done the most damage in your view? >> i would hesitate to say damage. >> caused the most weakness. >> the biggest one of post '68. in 1968 you had the war going on, vietnam war, riots, battles with police in the streets and had the party bosses picking hubert humphrey as their nominee, everybody wanted eugene mccarthy in the base. after that, they changed it and introduced primaries because before that, it was mostly a convention-based process. the delegates and the party bosses chose the nominee at the

convention. so all of this is very interesting, but what does it have to do with today? democrats are talk bing about getting rid of or reducing superdelegates and bernie sanders says that's undemocratic. i would just say you can go read about it, go listen to my podcast about this. i would say jonathan roush put it well, he says mediated democracy, which means it goes through certain channels -- >> right. >> -- is actually more democratic in many ways than direct democracy. i think that's the thing that we need to think about here. >> well, in the age, a.b. stoddard, of facebook, misinformation, fake news as in, you know, items that appear to be news but are not generated by news organizations in some ways argue for the point that jon is making, for more, you know, more informed group or some way of controlling this kind of information. >> that's what people don't want to hear. they don't want to hear -- there's -- the anti-establishment fervor is so

pote potent. i believe the parties have failed, the duopoly is broken. i don't necessarily say that's a good thing. what he's talking about, quotes in his reporting and the concept is this a gatekeeper, that this kind of filter provided by the parties ends up creating stability because they aren't always informed. combine that with someone who doesn't do any retail politicking to earn votes, is just a media sensation like donald trump, they come in and this is what the fear is will happen on the democratic side in 2020, if it they give the power back to the people and they -- and we completely get rid of the smoke-filled room that allowed hillary clinton to definitely stamp out bernie sanders in 2016, is that you will have a spoiler come in, super liberal, not someone that is going to be -- that the country is going to choose, ultimately, allow a donald trump victory again in 2020, because the establishment democratic candidates will all split the vote and then the superprogressive person will

come in and be unelectable. >> which is some ways what happened with donald trump in that, you know, the establishment figures split everything up. will say, for democrats, they have been in power for a long time, james clyburn this week saying if they don't take back the house, he and nancy pelosi and steny hoyer should all step aside. they have been in power for quite some time. coming up, the race for arizona's eighth district is less than 48 hours from the finish line. we'll have the latest look at that race. i'll be joined live by the democrat looking to pull off an upset to talk about the state of the race. we're back right after this. copd makes it hard to breathe.

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there are state legislators all across this nation that have run for congress and they've managed not to use their state funds for their federal races. senator llesko decided to find loophole. that seem like more of the same of the corrupt politician that we're tired of. >> she is not a fit for congressional district 8. hiral seems like a nice lady but she'd be a better fit for tucson or san francisco or something like that. your values just do not align with the constituents in district 8. >> the countdown is on for a big special election in arizona's eight congressional district on tuesday. democratic hiral tipirneni, republican debbie les cc cco vy for the seat of trent franks. president trump carried the district by 21 points in 2016.

the latest numbers from the arizona secretary of state's office shows republicans with a comfortable lead, 49% of the votes cast during early voting were cast by republicans. democrats accounted for 28%. and independents 23%. joining me now from phoenix, democratic candidate dr. hiral tipirneni. thank you for being with us tonight. i appreciate it. >> thank you for having me, kasie. i appreciate the opportunity. >> i want to start with that conversation that we just saw left off. trent franks was one of the most conservative members of the house of representatives. this is a conservative area. why do you think that you have a chance here, what has changed on the ground that makes you a potential fit for this district? >> well, you know what's interesting is i've lived here for 21 years. i mean, this is my home. this has been my district for all those years. and what i'm hearing on the ground is really very specific to the issues that the west valley families are facing.

we're talking about health care. they're worried about their premiums going up. they're worried about losing coverage. we have a large senior population. they're worried about their medicare and their social security. these are lifelines for them. we have a lot of young families with kids in school and they're worried about the quality of public education. what i think has happened is, look, we haven't really had a choice in this district for some time, and nobody has kind of reassessed where people stand on these issues and that's what's really come out during this -- my time campaigning since last july, frankly, is that the issues are the ones we've been talking about and the solutions i've been proposing are really resonating with the people on the ground. >> one issue that trent franks was known for that he focused on quite a bit in washington, d.c., was the issue of abortion. he had very strong antiabortion views. i'm wondering what is your position, would you support, for example, a ban on partial birth

abortion? >> well, look, what i would say is i'm a physician and seen and witnessed women making -- having to face that choice, that heartbreaking gut-wrenching choice. i do believe that's a decision that should be between a woman, her partner, her physician and her faith. our goal should be to keep abortions safe, legal and rare. we don't want it to go back to the days where women are bleeding out in the alleyways. we know that we have roe v. wade in place and want all of our legislation to be in alignment with that. if we want it to be rare, let's focus on things like comprehensive sex education in the classrooms that's age appropriate and making sure that women have access to contraception. study after study has shown that that is what has the greatest impact on lowering the number of abortion s or unwanted pregnancies. >> is there a point at which you do think abortion should be limited?

>> well, look, right now, we know that those decisions are made based on, you know, if you're talking about later, you know, late-term abortions, those are based on medical input from very experienced physicians and it's usually related to a risk to the woman's life. it is not something that is made frivolously. it is something that is very critical and i don't think that that's something that we should legislating. we need to let medical professionals make that decision based on what is best for that patient. >> let's turn to the politics here in washington. the leadership in the house among democrats has been in place for many, many years. there are many young members of the democratic party who have chafed in some ways. do you think nancy pelosi should be the speaker of the house if democrats retake the majority and would you support nancy pelosi for leader of the democratic party if you're elected? >> so, what i think is that

congress is going to look pretty different after november. we know there are a lot of races that will probably shift democratic and i think just the composition of the house is going to look remarkably different than it does now. and what i would say is, look, whoever throws their hat in the ring to be speaker, i'm going to be looking at their platform, the issues that they're going to fight for and if they're supporting things that are critical to my district, like medicare and social security, that's somebody i would get behind supporting. >> i'm not sure i'm hearing a yes or no answer in there, doctor. >> well, look, if nancy pelosi is running and she supports social security and medicare and makes a commitment to that, and she's running against somebody who does not, i mean, of course i would support her. >> i'm not sure there's anyone in the democratic caucus who would stand up and say they're not going to be supportive of medicare and social security. i'm not sure you would get a contrast on those issues inside the democratic caucus. >> well, but you also don't know who else is going to be in congress at that time. i mean, november's a long time

away. and i don't know who else is going to run, quite honestly. >> what -- to just turn for a second toward your own personal rationale for running in the age of president trump, what has gi driven you as a woman to run for office in this case? >> well, i'm running not just as a woman, i'm running as physician. i'm running -- i now work in cancer research advocacy. i'm a first-generation immigr t immigrant. i'm a mother. there are all these things that really define why i'm running and came down to feeling i have a skill set that i think would be very effective as a legislat legislator and there are serious problems families around my district are facing and solutions are not being proposed, progress isn't being made. and at some point you realize you're tired of fighting bad poly, you want to have a seat at the table to form good policy. i believe i bring a very strong voice to that. you know, one of the issues obviously that faces our country

and our district is health care. priemiums are skyrocketing in a as. vy come out with a detailed plan for health care reform. meaning every single american has sk access to quality, affordable health care. that's been at the top of the dialogue not just in our country but very specifically in my district. >> hiral tipirneni, thanks so much. we'll be watching your race this week. when we come back, the u.s. senate leaves us floored. insurance that won't replace the full value of your new car? you're better off throwing your money right into the harbor. i'm gonna regret that.

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senator tammy duckworth made history this month, becoming the first sitting u.s. senator to give birth while in office. on friday, her new daughter made history as the first baby to come on the senate floor, thanks to a new rule change out of the senate first introduced by her colleague senator dick durbin. it allows them to bring a child under 1 years old during votes which was not previously allowed. she spoke right after casting that vote. >> she slept through. i gave her milk before she got here. >> what did it mean to cast a vote? >> it meant so much to cast a vote as a new mom and do my job

and take care of my baby at the same time. >> congratulations. this change, however, didn't come without reservations from some of her colleagues. senator orrin hatch of utah said while he had no problem with the rules change, according to the associated press, he did ask, what if there are ten babies on the floor of the senate? senator pat roberts said he wasn't going to object to it, but said, quote, i don't think it's necessary. according to the ap, there were more concerns voiced privately. including whether duckworth intended to change the diaper or nurse her new baby on the senate floor. god forbid. oh, the humanity. >> perhaps some men who have not changed diapers were in that crowd. >> you have. >> five kids? >> yes.

>> so do you think these concerns are warranted? >> i think for guys of that generation, i think they are coming from a different place. the guys my age, i can't imagine raising that concern. i don't think it's warranted myself. i'm just kind of thinking, these guys don't really get the current modern workplace. they're from a different age. >> one thing, the reason pat roberts said he didn't think it was necessary because why can't she bring the baby into the cloak room. it's not a dwda accessible. she lost both of her legs in iraq, would be unable to actually have the baby in the cloak room. you have probably seen some of the rules change over your career in washington. >> i think that, no matter what party you are in, this is a happy story. she has served her country and is a -- she's a fighter in the best sense. she's a happy warrior.

>> this is not part sisan at al. >> they have to adjust to the times. they have to make the cloakroom accessible to a person in a wheelchair or let her do this on the senate floor. i like learning that some don't know what a diaper bag is. i like how honest grandfather hatch was. he didn't know if dogs were next. basically, i think everyone is going to work it out. they will adjust. i think she's just really an amazing person to have made history this way. >> she has been through an incredible amount. if she does decide to nurse her baby or god forbid change her diaper on the floor, i hope the guys can get it together. when we return, what to watch for in the week ahead.

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in a second we will talk about what our panelists are watching for in the week ahead. this is brody, the dog of our lovely and talented senior executive producer on the weekend. he is very interested in what is going on on the korean paw-ninsula. thank you for watching. thank you to my mom who is watching our show tonight with our family dog. that's skipper. you can see him on the left. thanks, mom. what do you watch in the week ahead? >> the tillis bill. i'm looking to dive into actual senate races after spending two

years with my head in the clouds. >> ashley? >> the president and his wife are hosting the french president macron on tuesday. this is a relationship that people didn't expect to be a great one. the french president invited trump to france for a military parade. it's a strong friendship. >> we having a military parade? >> we're having a military parade. >> they did finalize that? >> i will be fascinated by the visit. the state dinner and visit by macron, who is stressing his maverick similarities with donald trump but also asking for an exemption from the ahow malu and steel tariffs. >> mike pompeo has his confirmation hearing coming up this week. that coming up this week. that does it for us tonight. we will be back next week from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. don't miss "headliners,"

michael flynn. a look at the once decorated general and pivotal player in the russia investigation. for now, good night from washington. president trump's former national security adviser michael flynn has just pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the fbi. >> michael flynn, donald trump's national security adviser for just 24 days, is pledging full cooperation with the president's antagonist, special counsel robert mueller. >> today's news may change the calculus for the president legally and politically. >> what does flynn know about the russian investigation? >> he has information about president trump. he has information about the former campaign manager paul manafort, maybe about jared kushner and donald trump junior. >> a