he doesn't even have enough self force what he's doing in the white house and a rapper doubled my numbers. that's what he thinks of black voters. >> and this is the american presidency in 2018. it is sad. >> it is the week that was. my thanks to you all. that does it for our hour. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> you know, nicolle, it looks like you've already started happy hour there. donny deutsch is there, happy hour has begun. >> i love that you say it on tv. >> i say it as jealousy. >> no apology needed. >> there you go. hey, it is 5:00 somewhere and guess what it is 5:00 right now. trump in trouble he is? >> tonight trust fall. >> you know, what learn before you speak. takes lot easier. >> does it matter if the president cannot be taken at his

word? plus under the gun. the nra battles with its exposure in the russia investigation. >> we're all fighting battles. but i love fighting these battles. it is really a disgrace. >> and later, nobody's business. >> nobody wants to speak more than me. >> this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd in washington. we begin tonight with another day of more falsehoods, more fact checks and more contradictions all adding up to less credibility for the president and programs the white house perhaps the white house. much less. here he is trying to clean up the mess rudy giuliani made. >> why did you change your story on stormy daniels? >> we're not changing any stories. >> well, this is where the narrator interrupts and says they did change their stories. here is more from mr. trump.

>> to be bringing up that kind of crap and to be bringing up which pun witch hunts all the time, that is all you want to talk about. excuse me, excuse me. you take a look at what i said. you go back and take a look, you'll see what i said about. >> you said no when i asked you if you knew about the payment. >> you take a look what the we said. >> and this is where the narrator says let's take a look at what you said. >> did you know he about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> and this is where the narrator says he does know because after joulegiuliani's g his on account confirmed that he did know about the payment to stormy daniels and he did know where the money came from because it ultimately came from him. now, it is a question of when exactly the president knew all of this. and it is also a question of whether or not you can take

giuliani seriously because the president today suggested perhaps we shouldn't. >> rudy is a great guy, but he just started yesterday. he'll get his facts straight. he's a great guy. i will tell you this, i will tell you this, when rudy made the statements, rudy is great, but rudy had just started. and he wasn't totally familiar with everything. when he made certain statements, he just started yesterday, so that is it. >> and this is where the narrator would say giuliani did not start yesterday. we've reached the point where the president is telling us not to believe his own lawyer, but at the same time it is pretty hard to believe the president. do you believe what he said today about being interviewed bring bob mueller? >> i would love to speak. i would love to. nobody wants to speak more than me. i would love to speak. i would love to go. nothing i want to do more. we did nothing wrong. i would love to go, i would love to speak, but we have to be

treated fairly. >> and this is where the narrator would say he wouldn't love to speak with mueller. let's roll the tape. >> this is a pure witch hunt. right now it is a pure witch hunt. this is a witch hunt like nobody's seen. you have a group of investigators that are all democrats. in all fairness, bob mueller worked for obama for eight years. >> and bob mueller isn't a democrat and he didn't want for obama for eight years. so it is hard to take the president at his word, so what do you make of this? >> there was no collusion with the russians. there was nothing. there was no obstruction. >> we've reached the point where we ask again, if the president's misleading statements matter. they should, but do they and to whom. joining me now is mark lauder, a former press secretary to vice president pence. he is now a spokesman for the

trump/pence political operation and a member of the trump 2020 advisory board. thanks for coming in. let me start with this. why should we take the president at his word right now? >> i think the president has been consistent when he said that he did not know about that payment. if you look at what rudy giuliani told bob costa from the "washington post," he said that at the time when the president did that interview on air force one, that he was not aware of that payment being remade because rudy giuliani says informed him of that a week to ten days ago. >> so giuliani informed him but then the president said giuliani doesn't have his facts straight. so it leads to the impression that donald trump does know the facts but you're saying no, giuliani informed him. and i understand why you may be confused because i'm confused. >> and rudy has put out a statement clarifying some of that. i'm not sure it completely clarifies everything. and that is where we'll have to

get more information. but the one thing i think, and there was a poll out a few months ago that said i think less than one quarter of americans think that this affair or on the coverage of it is important to the -- >> so why does the president cover it up so much? i'm with you. i don't think this is a big political deal. why does he go through hoops to not tell us the truth about it? >> i think the big thing is that they have clarified that this was not an fec violation. >> how do we know that? >> i talked to one of the top election law lawyers yesterday about this asking him here in washington, d.c. and he said there is a very specific criteria that while the law says one thing, there is a precedent that clearly defines what an in-kind skon fridcontri would be and this does not meet that. >> that may be true, but rudy giuliani is the one that brought up the election time line. so if that is the case, why didn't he pay her in 2011 or 2012 or 2013 or 2014 when there was some interaction between mr.

cohen and the lawyer? >> and i'm not sure when or how that came to his attention in 2016, but regardless of the time line according to court precedent, they are saying that one of the lawyers i spoke to says this does not reach the criteria of being a campaign contribution. >> what was rudy giuliani trying to do? was he trying to sort of clear out the stormy daniels distraction and instead it made it worse? i mean -- i got the impression that's what he was trying to do and it didn't work. >> i've not talked to rudy about it, i just saw on social media some reporting that kristen welker suggested that that was his intention, that before the information got leaked out by the southern district of new york, he just wanted to get it out there on the table. >> so is the president's tweet from yesterday morning correct or not, which indicated that it

was a retainer that he paid and how michael cohen used that money? is that -- what is it that we should take as fact here when it comes to the president's knowledge about his payments to michael cohen and michael company len's paymecohe cohen's payments to stormy daniels? >> and i do want to be clear, this is a matter between the president and -- >> but do we take his twitter feed as his word? >> i'm not involved in those personal discussion, so i wouldn't know the information. >> let me ask a larger issue he. dan ball who does that write in hyperbolic terms. his slelead is does it bother anyone that president trump was caught lying, that this is not new, that the president has been shown to be a liar. those are rough words from somebody that wouldn't go down that road. and you look at the "washington post" had a study as of may 1, he has told 3001 false or m misleading claims while in office. does it make it harder to say

that you can take the president at his word? >> i think what we're looking at, what the american people are seeing are the results. we're talking about things like the economy, we're looking at north korea, and while there are many things that consume our coverage and everything here inside the beltway, i think when you get outside, i think so many people are going, well, i may not always agree with the way things are said or how things are said, it is the results that matter and so far they are tending to like what they're seeing pmg we're s seeing. >> the president called is it crap. but here's what the "wall street journal" editorial page, someone not unfriendly to the president. he writers this, mr. trump is compiling a record that increases the likelihood that few will believe him during a genuine crisis, say a dispute over speaking with robert mueller or nuclear showdown with kim jung-un. mr. trump should worry that americans will stop believing

anything he says. is it the crying wolf argument? >> i think that is something that we have to address across the board. because when we do face that situation and all administrations do, but i do think that we have an ability in our country to in times of crisis to see past some of the political things that may go on at other times during the year. and that when we stand up there and behind that podium or on the world stage confronting those cris crises, that we tend to believe our leaders regardless of political affiliations or our thoughts on them beyond that. >> did the president and rudy giuliani leave sarah sanders out to dry yesterday? do you feel -- are you concerned that eventually what you're telling me may not be true? >> i don't think so. i'll go back to the bob costa interview with rudy. he assumsupported that time lint he talked about which was reiterated by the president. i think not know thanoknowing t

interview was taking place, that is a coordination issue and i'm sure everyone in the white house would prefer to have more information, but what we have to realize is that this is not in the white house's realm, this is not the white house counsel's office that is handling this where sarah can just go down the hall and say give me your information. these are the personal attorneys working on -- >> i understand that, but if you were working in the white house, would you say then don't make me answer a question that i don't have an answer to? >> unfortunately as you well know, we can't control what questions are asked to us, so we do have to prepare the best we can. i think she goes out there trying to give the best information every day as all white house press secretaries do. sometimes that gets contradicted and you have to deal with that. >> hope hicks told a congressional committee that she's had to tell white lies. we can define what white lies are. sean spicer has admitted that there were exaggerated that he said in front of the podium. this is a pattern you can't get back. i think we have a majority in the quinnipiac poll 60% believe

that he doesn't tell the truth. >> and that is something that i think what we're going to have to work on long term is making sure that we have that trust. and that results -- let's back up to results with the rhetoric. and get everybody thinking on the same page again and hopefully if we can dial down the partisanship on all sides, that we can get back to that listening term. >> all right. i'm sure plenty of people don't envy the situation you get put on. thanks for coming on. a development in the paul manafort legal saga today. the judge overseeing the trial of the former trump campaign chairman speculated that the special counsel may have gone outside its scope in the charges against manafort. well, guess what? that was news, that was music to president trump's ears. take a listen. >> judge in manafort case says mueller's aim is to hurt trump. do you believe that? it is called a witch hunt. a federal judge friday questioned special counsel robert mueller's authority to bring tax and bank fraud charges

unrelated -- unrepreselated -- e 2016 election against former trump campaign manager chairman paul manafort who was there for a short while. but he is a good person. he is. >> the minute that news came out, i think we all expected that conflation to take place and sure enough the president conflated his situation with mueller with paul manafort. so joining me now is ken dilanian. you were in that courtroom today. this was a motion by manafort's attorney to essentially get the charges against him, some of these charges, not all, dismissed because they are arguing it is out side the scope of the special counsel's investigation. what happened in that courtroom? >> it was supposed to be a routine run-of-the-mill hearing and the judge t.s. ellis, a republican appointed judge, just teed off on not only the mueller team, the entire premise of the mueller investigation. >> wow. >> now, my take on it, he was engaging in a bit of rhetoric.

it's not uncommon for federal judges to slap the government around and then rule in the government's favor. a lot of legal observers are still expecting that to happen here. >> that he will still give the special counsel this leeway to charge him with extra crimes? >> yeah, because the hurdle to dismiss these charges is pretty high. but some of the things he said, you don't really care about mr. manafort's bank fraud, you really care about getting information mr. manafort can give you that would reflect on mr. trump and lead to his prosecution or impeachment. >> by the way, i would characterize that in washington as a michael kinsly gaffe meaning actually telling the truth about what the investigation is really about. >> exactly. >> he's basically saying we know you're squeezing manafort, squeeze him legitimately, don't go overboard? >> and of course we've been reporting that he is squeezing manafort. >> he already squeezed rick gates. so obvious where he's going. >> but the mueller team was not willing to admit that in court today. and they just continued to argue, look, this is legitimate

inquiry. yes, they don't relate to russian collusion, but they stem from it. >> and i assume manafort's biggest hurdle is that there is still evidence that he xhiltsed committed a crime. you can't somehow hide from being charged from a crime, right? >> there is a suggestion that maybe that should have been prosecuted by the eastern district in virginia the way the southern district in new york is going after michael cohen. but at the end of the day, the rings are pretty clear that the special counsel can investigate matters a rising from the russia collusion investigation. that's what they argue this is. >> most important thing that happened is that the judge said this on the record because guess who reiterated it at the rally at the nra. >> as a sports fan, the judge also invoked the come on man segment. thought you'd like that. >> sounds like these court hearings were worth going to. ken, thanks very much. up ahead, the fbi's new target in the russian meddling

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...to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. i'll take that. [cheers] 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. new ensure max protein. in two great flavors. welcome back. let's bring in tonight's panel. ruth marcus, saheel matthew, i with you. the debate that we have, does it matter if the president didn't have credibility? it is sort of like he can have credibility even when he doesn't tell the truth or doesn't he. it is different than to seriously literally the debate a year ago. >> journalistically, it matters because one has to cover the president's statements. politically is another question.

and when you look at some of thele forring that we' inpollin seem that the american voter is giving credibility the same weight that people in the media and washington, d.c. are. >> that is an excellent point. his approval rating has been remarkedbly stable. and that is them overlooking what is beyond reasonable doubt with this president to use a legal term. i guess speaking faulgs hoods and misleading statements and lies at an exfoe thexponentiallr clip than his predecessors. more than 3,000 false or misleading statements. that is remarkable. previous presidents have laid, they usually pay a price. this president has not.d, they usually pay a price. this president has not.laid, they usually pay a price. this president has not.ied, they usually pay a price. this president has not.

>> in some ways we were noting because they were singular, they sort of -- they had more impact in some ways on them than just the fire hose of trump. >> there is an outrage fatigue that is going on. and so when it happens so relentlessly and so constantly, the impact is that we all get inured to it. i think the political analysis is totally right. the societal analysis is a little bit different. yes, there is the shoot 'em in the middle of fifth avenue crowd, but what happens when you need to -- when the public at large needs to rely on the president. we needed to -- >> basically the point this morning. >> and we need to launch this strike. there are weapons of mass destruction. and there is already an air of distrust at any authority. you layer this on top of of it, that is when you have a problem. also same answer with allies. >> it gets to a fundamental question of what kind of society we want to be. do we want to be a society that values truth for the sake of

truth or will we accept when public officials use information as an instrument. >> and we've been through this before. the late jeffrey bell called it the politics of bifurcation referring to the clinton scandals. we saw the same thing. while people didn't trust president trump after the lewinsky scandal, his approval rating continued to be high because of conditions on the ground. so i think if we look broadly, the economy, voters like peace makers and trump is preparing for the summit with kim jung-un, i think trump's message on manufacturing and trade is strengthening his base, is getting people on the not so much the republican voters, but those kind of obama voters who switched for trump, all of a sudden they are saying that is why i voted for him, to bring our factories back. so in the political sense i think he is okay. >> voters already believe that all politicians are liars. and so you're saying trump is a liar?

how is that any different than any other politician? >> and the answer is 3,000 lies. right? >> but your only answer is volume. >> correct. >> i know. and that is the -- the voter would say so? >> okay. what are we here for? >> i guess the question is, it does eventually matter. the argument i made this morning was bill clinton didn't pay a price in 1998. but hillary clinton paid bill clinton's price in 2016. eventually donald trump and the republicans will pay a price. >> and bill clinton replaced by george w. bush ran on honor and integrity in the presidency. so how do you play off of trump's perceived weakness on the credibility issue and are you going to be able to rechasm chur t recapture the economic issue trump took from you. >> and we have yet to see what democrats will do with this, how they will take advantage of this if they will, if they will beat

trump in the midterm elections and whether they can capitalize on the fact that we do have a president who says false things pretty frequently. >> every new president or every candidate in the general election is a kind of a reaction to and almost for voters a referendum on the candidate of the past. so i'm thinking back to jimmy carter who promised after richard nixon i'll never lie to you, not remembered as a particularly successful president. but he got elected on that campaign. so to be determined whether there is an impact on voters. >> he may have lost his political authority, but jimmy carter in some ways never did lose that moral authority. and so the question -- >> you can't think of -- >> people don't think he was a liar. they thought he was a weak. there is a difference. they thought he was weak, they thought he was distrustful. >> micro managing. >> and lecturing to the american people that they are not wise enough or strong enough is not

the way for democrats to win in 2020. >> and democrats feel like they have such a wealth of material with this president that they don't know what to focus on unlike what they did with george w. bush, they focused on the wmds and won. so it remains to be seen. >> and there is a lot of stormy daniels and russia in the news. when health care is in the new, the democratic party numbers go up. donald trump's numbers were going down. when the fight was over things like that and now it is interesting democrats should get a little nervous. trump's numbers aren't sinking. they are either stable or slightly on the rise and you have to wonder is dit because we're not talking about bread and butter issues. >> and democrats should not just think about it now, but if they retake the house and whether impeachment will work for them any better than impeachment worked for republicans with bill clinton. >> you have to be aware of 1998 when republicans were extremely confident going into that

midterm election that bill clinton's lack of credibility and moral failings would result in republican gains. and in fact the republicans lost seats in the house. so i wonder when you talk about the blue wave, the more stormy and russia dominates the headline, the less reason democrats have to come up with messages on substantive issues. >> more importantly, it is less that it is the republican turnout could end up starting to build. and it is like you you saw the president today at the nra, that is about juice and turnout. >> and from my reporting democratic leaders are certainly aware of the prospect of an impeachment conversation boosting republican turnout. having said that, if democrats take back the house, there will be daily pressure from some quarters of their party to consider that proposition. >> and it is sort of funny, we're reminded of this from donald trump at the end of the 2016 campaign that he was talking about hillary clinton. take a look. >> she is likely to be under

investigation for many, many years. she'll be under investigation for years. she will be with trials. we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial. >> that was candidate trump's basically closing message to say careful of voting for her. >> possibly heed a not read the office of legal counsel opinions on whether you can indict a sitting president. >> he might not have been wrong. >> that is true. we talked about that today. we might be sit management exact same place just from an opposite perspective. >> how many people who voted for him for that reason now feel that way. >> and that ultimately is the question none of us can answer until we see something at the ballot box. stick around. up ahead, nobody does it better than the president. whatever it is. >> nobody is more conservative than me on energy independence,

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tonight i'm obsessed with nobody. and what it means to somebody. >> nobody is in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as donald trump. nobody builds walls better than me. nobody wants to take care of daca more than myself. nobody knows more than about trade than me.

nobody loves the bible more than i do. nobody is stronger. nobody cherishes and respects women more than donald trump. nobody been tougher on russia. nobody that understands the horror of nuclear better than me. love the first amendment. nobody loves it better than me. and there is nobody that loves the second amendment more than i do. nobody can do it like i do it. nobody. >> so if you are keeping score at home, nobody knows more about infrastructure, builds walls, wants to take care of daca, loves the bible, cherishes and respects women, tougher on russia, understands nuclear, loves the first amendment, second amendment, and does it like i do it. and that is not an exhaustive list. but the president is challenged, he often retorts with nobody does blank better than i do. the question about his commitment to gun ownership? for one loves the second amendment more. about why he is not punishing putin? nobody has been tougher on russia. you get the drift. nobody knows more about infrastructure except maybe the

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i've been saying that for a long time. it's a witch hunt. >> that was president trump at the nra convention today in dallas talking about the investigation of his campaign's ties to russia. and get this, there may actually be a tie between russia and the nra. the fbi is reportedly investigating whether the nra played a role in russia's election meddling. here is how it works. the nra spent $30 million to support donald trump's campaign. that was nearly triple what it spent to help mitt romney. mcclatchy report is out. and this banker is among the 17 senior russian government officials recent wily hit by ne sanctions. torshin is also under scrutiny

for contactinging the campaign. congressional committees have been looking at torshin's encount tkouncounter at the con. so why did someone linked to the kremg ly kremlin make inroads in the first place in that joining me is company author nd you co-aut. mr. gordon, welcome to the show. so who is aleksandr torshin? >> aleksandr torshin is currently the deputy governor of the central bank of russia. so he is a top russian banker and he is also reputed to be very close to the president putin. and some years ago, torshin became a lifetime member of the national rifle association. >> russia has a ban on gun ownership? >> this is under -- the irony is

that putin doesn't want people in russia buying guns. so this is what really i think has drawn a lot of the attention from the intelligence agencies, so why did torshin not only become a lifetime member of the nra, but he also formed a gun rights group in russia called the right to bear arms. and he put in charge of this an interesting lady which we'll come to in a minute. and he came over here to nra conventions. that stopped when this controversy hit, he wasn't -- he is not at the current convention to our knowledge. and so during the 2016 conference in kentucky, he hooks up with the president's son, donald jr., and supposedly he wanted to set up a meeting with the president and pputin, but

also he wanted to meet the president personally in a separate kind of -- >> so, look, this is evidence of an attempt a perhaps by the russians to make contact with the trump campaign. and it is now the second -- at least the second known contact between donald trump jr. and somebody corrected to tcorrecte to the kremlin. but does that say anything other than the russians were interested in making nice with putin? you know, what is the evidence that takes to that next step that makes it suspicious? >> well, what we learned from sources familiar with the investigation by the fbi, which is on russia working for bob mueller, is that the bureau is looking at whether torshin funneled money -- we have to be very careful with this. whether torshin funneled money to the nra to help trump win the

presidency. >> the nra is obviously -- democratic senator ron widen released a letter where the nra claims that the sum total of foreign money from russian addresses was $2512.85. that is a lot less than say $30 million. >> right. so first of all, if russia funneled money to the nra, they didn't do it in an open way. they are not stupid. they have been doing intelligence operations with their security service and so forth. >> do they have a theory of how it was done? >> well, the nra accepts dark money now. remember the citizen united ruling. so if money came to the nra, one could presume that it might be in the name of an llc, limited liability corporation. >> with an american address and american papers. >> very difficult to pierce what is behind those.

what is interesting is there is -- and i don't want to insinuate anything too much here, but it is interesting that the operatives made one of the approaches to the trump campaign, a gentleman named paul erickson out in south dakota, and my colleague and partner peter stone did great sleuthing on this, erickson wrote an e-mail trying to set up some kind of a back channel meeting between trump and putin. but he also set up an llc in south dakota called bridges llc. and when peter got erickson on the phone and asked him, what was this llc for, he said it was for postgraduate courses for maria butina, the lady i referenced before, who took over the operations of the russian gun rights group right to bear arms. >> so suddenly this is the

potential go between company that may have funneled money. one potential avenue. >> right. and only thing i'd say about this whole thing is that this is a counter intelligence operation. whether we'll ever find out what the fbi discovered is unclear. but the dynamic that is so interesting to me, you have trump whose biggest donor was the nra, he puts in a new fbi director chris wray and one of the he first things he's confronted with is investigating trump's biggest donor. >> an interesting point. one final question. you were one of the by lines along with peter stone on a pretty blockbuster report a couple weeks ago that other news organizations haven't been able to match, which you want to be first, but you want to know that others have, which is this idea that mueller has proof that michael cohen -- or has evidence of michael cohen traveled to

prague. >> we checked with our two sources who we trust. and they told us that they were happy with the story. >> so you stand by it? >> we stand by it. and of course we'll find out what happens presumably. and if michael cohen ends up becoming a government witness, we might find out more. >> very important. thanks for coming on. up ahead, we're talking about the big upcoming election day plus have your favorite foods been lying to you all this time? it took guts to start my business. but as it grew bigger and bigger, it took a whole lot more. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. everything. and that 2% cash back adds up to thousands of dollars each year... so i can keep growing my business in big leaps! what's in your wallet?

welcome back. time for meet the midterm. with just a few days to go from one of the big first election days of this year, the primary in west virginia is getting even uglier. done bla don blankenship has escalated his attacks on mitch mcconnell and his wife, a chinese american, who is also by the way the secretary of transportation. >> swamp captain mitch mcconnell has created millions of jobs for chinese people, and mitch has gotten rich. his chinese family has given him tens of millions of dollars. >> nem al allies are comparing

blankenship to roy moore. this tweet from josh holmes, for those asking, this is my response to west virginia roy moore. this clown is a walk talking case study for the limitation of a prison's ability to rehabilitation. wow. anyway, that is a reference to the year blankenship spent in prison for mismanaging a coal mine. we'll be back with more on the big upcoming primary this tuesday, some important red state senate republican primaries right after the break. . and it's also a story about people. . people who rely on us every day to deliver their dreams they're handing us more than mail they're handing us their business and while we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget... that your business is our business the united states postal service. priority: you ♪

you might or joints.hing for your heart... but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. . like 90% of the time, you win the presidency and is for whatever reason, you lose the midterm. we can't let that happen. you win, you have this great win, you now you take a breath. you relax. all of a sudden two years is up, they are fighting like hell and you are complacent. we cannot get complacent.

we have to win the midterms. >> that is actually a speech i've heard from other presidents before. time for "the lid." panel saheel, we have three interesting primaries on tuesday, i think it's the first important big multi-state primary day of the campaign season, indiana, the senate race, the republican primary there nasty. who is going to get out of there? west virginia senate we saw blankenship that's a whole level of crazy. then you would think the lesser -- the lesser focused on ohio primaries. what are you watching? >> firstly president trump is really spot on with his analysis of the dynamics of the midterms, that is how it's worked for a long time, the president's party almost always loses seats, republicans are likely to lose states. west virginia republicans want to dodge this bullet named don blankenship. that would be -- >> roy moore with a prison term. >> without the molestation. >> he doesn't have a horse, he

isn't an accused pedophile. >> plus racist. >> the democrats i'm speaking to in west virginia said he is slipping in the polls. jenkins and morrissy are in a better position. indiana, this one i love, it's a three-way lovefest for president trump. one of them is walking around the state wearing a maga hat, the other one says i'm nominating him for a nobel peace prize the other is an outside businessman. >> the red state democrats in those states, donnelly and manchin, i was surprised they didn't flirt with blankenship and try to puff him up. >> it's interesting. that has not ever worked terribly. >> worked well for clair. it can work. >> point withdrawn. i am watching trump because he -- his point is right as

saheel said and he should be more incentivized than even the ordinary president for two reasons, because if he loses the house of congress it's not just his legislative agenda that's in peril, but there is a whole host of investigations and, yes, the other "i" word that are the potential outcome for this. so every president shouldn't be complacent at his midterm, this president actually is right about complacency. >> matthew, the one thing we are not seeing in the republican primaries is the debate of the faye fewer of what conservatism means. everybody is like i'm accepting the trump definition of conservatism. it's not what paul ryan or bill crystal would want to see, but it's the reality. >> these candidates are adopting the stylistic particulars of donald trump. so they have the attitude, they have the maga hat, they're nominating him for the nobel peace prize and blankenship you see a no holds barred crew said

against the establishment. but the whole party has internalized the political economy of donald trump. i don't see messages about reshoring jobs. you see some of the primary, specifically on the border states about getting tough on the border or talking about immigration in terms of having a tight labor market that increases wages. they haven't gotten the policy of trump. of course, it's easy to miss the policy of trump with all the pizza pizzazz, but i think it's the policy of trump that got him to where he is today. >> let me bring up another primary on the other side and that is ohio governor. it's richard cordry and dennis kucinich. god, could cordry blow that? >> he is ahead right now, i think he's got the benefit. kucinich represented in the house but outside of that it's difficult to see how he runs up the score in cleveland enough to

compensate for where he's going to lose outside of the state. cordry is a former obama official, center left person, kucinich is much more out there. >> the other republican primary in ohio that intrigues me is the one for governor. mike dewine the attorney general, mary tirrell and both are running away from kasich as fast as they can. >> that is interesting but i am also interested in the cordry/kucinich race because it shows the possibility that are rampant for both parties to mess things up for themselves. you know, never -- never underestimate your ability to shoot yourself in the head as a democrat or a republican. >> this primary season may tell us that in spades. ruth, thank you. up ahead french fries or french lies? as a control enthusiast,

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transitions™ light under control™ mr. elliot, what's your wiwifi?ssword? wifi's ordinary. basic. do i look basic? nope! which is why i have xfinity xfi.

it's super fast and you can control every device in the house. [ child offscreen ] hey! let's basement. and thanks to these xfi pods, the signal reaches down here, too. so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. finally in case you missed it sweden suffered a huge loss this week. the country that gave us ikea and confusing movies and a weird muppet chef also gave us swedish meatballs or so we thought. it turns out swedish meatballs were imported from turkey in the 18th century which got us wondering, what other foods are lying to us? french fries, are they really french? no, belgium and maybe spain. certainly not france.

we can still thank france for lafayette and the statute of liberty. >> baked alaska comes from new orleans. how about russian dressing? sorry, how about new hampshire dressing. that's right. if you're boycotting russian dressing because you don't like putin or you can't quit the cold war you can stop now. it's a fight with new hampshire. finally london broil. nope. actually, london broil refers to a method of cooking and has nothing to do with london or england, we think. in fact, it may be as american as apple pie, if apple pie really is american. so think about all of this tonight when you sit down to your dinner of turkish meatballs, american broil, belgian fries, salad with new hampshire dressing and a dessert of baked new orleans. that's all for tonight, we will be back monday with more "mtp daily" and if it's sunday i will

see you on "meet the press" on nbc. check your local listing. to now the beat with ari melber starts now. >> good evening. we begin with breaking news. rudy guiliani goes under the bus and exposes how concerned donald trump is about the stormy daniels payment. trump on stage in dallas at this nra convention, he didn't mention rudy guiliani or stormy daniels, but as he was going on stage rudy in full damage control mode with a correction from his bombshell revelation that after all this trump actually did pay stormy daniels by repaying michael cohen $130,000. here is the quote, there is no campaign violation. he argues the payment would have been done in any event whether trump was a candidate or not. but his own boss undercutting him hours earlier saying he didn't have the facts straight. >> rudy is a great guy but he just started a day ago. he's going to be