that's what he does and he wants to be a counter puncher. >> that's does it for our hour. mtp daily starts now. >> got to love it. save some miles, i guess. >> that's one way to do it. if it's tuesday, does president trump have the right stuff to deal with north korea? good evening. i'm chuck todd here. welcome to "mtp daily." we have development os on the ph for impeachment and gina haspel who appears to have enough support to be the next director of the cia. we begin with some breaking news

and reports of north korea is threatening to pull out the upcoming summit on june 12th. north korea says it's cancelling high level talks with south korean leaders that we're schedule for later in the day due to plooned military exercises between south korea and the united states. this is according to south korean media. the drills are the rehearsal for an invasion. they're warning about the quote fate of the planned north korea u.s. summit. in a statement the pentagon called the military exercises routine and defensive drills. does this seem like something kim jong-un thought was part of that assurance. joining me is andrea mitchell.

is this kim jong-un poking the fence like one of those smart dinosaurs in jurassic park to see where it's electrified and isn't. >> the president was eager to accept the terms before they were spelled out. new york said the military exercises that are defensive in nature can go on. >> they sort of acknowledged this was going to happen. supposedly. >> they acknowledged it back even before the talks with mike pompeo to follow up and confirm all these agreements. two trips by mike pompeo and he was on two sunday talk shows

affirming that there would be economic benefits possible. the is up pigs is this was all baked in the cake. the president said how excellent kim jong-un was to give us back our three prisoners. there's been criticism. why is he calling him honorable? why is he saying he's excellent for giving back prisoners he never should have had? has the president, the art of the deal author or ghost written book author, why was the president so eager? >> nobody knows kim jong-un that well. >> at all. >> people don't know him that well at all. we have an idea of how his father negotiated and grandfather. there's some similarities here. is -- who wants this summit many -- more?

trump or kim jong on? >> we're about to find out. they were making this the centerpiece other than tax -- the legacy. >> the legacy for 2018. >> his nobel peace prize he's accepted it. . >> you can't predict the president but the assumption would be a traditional response would be then walk away. anything other than that, would that surprise you in. >> they have no now go through the south koreans and their own -- >> you would assume we have to steal our spine here? >> you would assume that.

what is the fall back position? is it back to the nuclear buttons. >> is it possible kim jong-un realizes he got what he wanted which is recognition on the stage. he wants the summit eventually but he doesn't need it in june. he doesn't care if it takes place? >> you don't know how much difficulty they are in economically. he's already started dismantling the nuclear test site in the north which china wants dismantled as well. he's put a lot on the table. we have accepted putting us on defense because he is now gained a propaganda advantage. >> at this point we're about to

find out who wants this summit more. >> exactly. >> all right. you better get out of here. thanks very much. let's turn to the politics of impeachment. believe it or not it's become a hot topic with leaders in the republican party. it's not for what you think. whether you're talk about elected leaders, party leaders, even president trump's lawyers, they are warning that nancy pelosi is readying her caucus for a coup post-november. >> if she wants to obstruct everything and impeach the president, i don't think america wants to see that. her whole goal is to impeach the president, try to win the majority over that. >> they have a bun of of resist object who want to obstruct and screaming impeachment. >> is this election in 2018 going to be a referendum.

>> we go to the american people and say the following. do you want to impeach a president? you want to have nancy pelosi running the house of representatives. forget it. >> all right. is nancy pelosi encouraging her caucus to talk about impeachment. >> i've discouraged any discussion of impeachment. on the political side i think it's a gift to the republicans to talk about impeachment. >> pelosi has spent months try to tamp down what is a growings faction within the democratic party. making matters more difficult is president trump. he is increasingly embracing the idea of becoming the martyr of the midterms by invoking pro-impeachment democratic congresswoman maxine waters.

>> maxine water, a very low iq individual. ever see her? you ever see her. we will impeach him. he hasn't done anything wrong. it doesn't matter. we will impeach him. >> we will impeach him. we will impeach him. this is what we're going to have to fight against. >> we will impeach him. we will impeach him. doesn't matter if you do anything right or wrong. they want to do that. we got to win the house. we're going to win any way. >> taken together, the president, house leadership, the rnc, it's pretty clear the gop believes it's best chance of saving the house under president trump is by dragging democrats into a fight over ousting president trump. for democrats it's hard to see how they avoid getting dragged into this fight. in addition to the i word being blared by the progressive wing

of their caucus which is being amplified by the entirety of the gop pull put there's pressure coming from big democratic donors like billionaire tom stye who are has been holding down halls to fire up that progressive pro-impeachment base. you seem to be in the minority in the progressive movement as far as leadership is concerned when it comes campaigning on the impeachment issue. why do you believe you're right and nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are wrong? >> we're trying to tell a truth that we believe is the most important truth in american politics today. we're trying to put the interest of the american people and our democracy first. that's all we're trying to do and that's all we're going to

continue to try to do. i'm not sure -- >> what do you say to democrats who feel you're stepping on a message. just as i stepped on you. my apologies. you're stepping on a message of health care and other issues. you're playing into donald trump's hands. he wants nothing more than to be a political martyr. what do you say to that? >> i think the midterms in 2018 regardless of what any democrat or republican does to a large extent going to be a referendum on this president and this administration. i think that what we're trying to do is tell the truth about what he's doing in terms of his. the danger he's presenting to america and the lawless behavior he exhibit os on daily basis an we believe that telling the truth is something that's important to do a at all times and that's why we're doing it.

>> is that the goal? >> we are a grass roots organization. we organize around the country with our partners. we're probably the largest grass roots organization in the united states trying to promote education and participation by as many americans as possible. we believe the answer is more democracy and we believe, in fact, americans are involved and turn out that we'll get a much better congress and congress will flip. that is something where we feel that's something we have done for five years long before the question of impeachment was ever on the table. that's something we believe is a important battle. >> for the house to win back

congress, if you want to elect a pro-impeachment majority that the three states you would be advertising in woult would not be iowa, south carolina, and new hampshire. when i look at how you're spending your tv ad dollar, you seem to be most focused on the first four states. i'll throw in nevada. you're in media markets that are all about the first four primary states in the 2020 presidential. i don't see any pennsylvania ads. i don't see any texas ads. there's a whole buchb of congressional districts. is this about you raising your profile to run for president? >> absolutely not. we have been in nevada. we have even in iowa and new hampshire since 2014. we have been organizing in those states because they are swing states for a long time. in fact, we have been going to those states. i've been going to those states for five years.

the fact that we are still organizing in those states, we have organizations that have been building grass roots impact there for a long time. we're not in all 50 states but we're in 11. >> wait a minute. i'm sorry. you're trying to tell me that the fact that a lion share of the money you're spending are in the first four presidential primary states. if i were to believe what you're saying you'd be in wisconsin, michigan, florida for the last seven years. you wouldn't have been in iowa, nevada and new hampshire. come on. >> we are in wisconsin. we are in florida. we are in michigan. we are in pennsylvania. we're organizing in all of them. >> i'm looking at the tv ads. you haven't spent the money that

you're spending in the presidential states. >> actually, if you take a look at where we spent money, we have spent money by far the biggest money is national ad buys which go to every single one of those states. if you look at the spending by state, you will see that the bulk of our money is going to the big biggest states that we're in. i want to play an excerpt if your town hall in iowa earlier this week. take a listen. >> mr. trump has -- he really is an incredibly skillful and talented communicator. he really is, which hitler was

too. let's not -- i think the reason people push back against the hitler comparison regardless of any similarities is hitler ended up killing millions and millions of people. mr. trump has shown a disregard for our law. he has been -- he breaks the law. he's shown a disrespect for the idea of law and in many ways he has done things that we find or oi find abhorrent but he hasn't killed millions of people. that's why we want to impeach him. we'd like to end it here. >> you dealt with the contradiction in your answer how when hitler gets introduced. you were asked a question about hitler. you did not bring him up. this is what happens with the impeachment argument. it becomes the slippery slope extremist argument and nuance

gets lost. it looks like all they care about getting trump. what do you say about that nuance issue? >> i think it's really important that we stimstick to the fact and the truth. that's what we have tried to do really hard. if you listen to me in that answer, i was saying no that's not a fair comparison because he hasn't done what hitler did. >> were you taken aback by the crowd's reaction? were you taken aback when the crowd didn't react the way you did? >> no. i know there are people upset about this. i know there are people who haven't thought about it as intensively maybe as i have. no, i understand people's fears and concerns. that doesn't surprise me. i think it's important to make the point you make which is there are, it's important to stick to the truth and in the go overboard and get into some kind och of emotional rant. that's what i was trying to do there.

that's what i tried to do at every single instance is not do what you're warning about. i think that would be wrong. >> i'm going to leave it there. i know you're busy and got a plane to catch. thank you for making time for us. up ahead, are we simply out of bandwidth for all the aelss of corruption inside the trump administration in text alert. 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, where agents help keep you protected from mayhem... ...like me. mayhem is everywhere. are you in good hands? hello. give me an hour in tanning room 3. cheers! that's confident. but it's not kayak confident.

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especially but i want to start with this impeachment issue. heidi you're here. you just interviewed harry reid before. maybe he didn't know he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. one thing about harry reid, he doesn't run away from controversy. he'll doing the controversy thing. he's afraid of the impeachment message. >> he grew very animated about this. helened forward and he said i have a message to all of my colleagues, please stop. he specifically called out tom stier as well. the party elders know that the party, the republican party is looking for that thing. that thing that will help energize the republican base. there's an underlining culture

problem with democratic donors compared to the billionaire republican donors like the koch brothers. they put their money to rebuilding the party from the ground up. they have these pacts that are organized around issues or people. they say they don't want to talk it. do you believe them? >> i believe the leaders of democratic party, they don't want to talk about it. they don't want to give the impression that they have prejudged president trump, that they have launched down this path before even taking -- >> they haven't seen. >> mueller hasn't finished.

those kind of issues we need democratic congress to exercise some restraint on a run away administration. that sort of thing. that has to in political terms has to stop short of impeachment. >> there's that point where you over it. your party found that out in 1998. at the same time you want to capture the image what you see now. i'm surprised house republicans are just going along with this messaging but i understand. >> what's the one thing that a lot of republican voters say they wish republicans had done, repeal obama care. they didn't get that done. the next order is what can we do to animate our base.

the other problem is the american political problem of what it takes to win a primary versus a general. the message could resonate with the democratic base. that's why he's running with it. >> that's nice in 2020. >> with so many discussions i'm going to michigan to talk to another one of them, they want to stay as far away as possible from this into any and every democrat including nancy pelosi.

think about what you're having to run on. >> exactly. >> then he's gone. i think what they are so in need, they still fear the democratic enthusiasm that's out there. the president has ticked up a bit in the poll. i don't think anybody has believed that's switched things all around. there's a lot out there on the democratic side. a lot of people are going to come out to vote and republicans are trying to counter act. >> a lot of us dismiss donald trump and birtherism as that's discredited him. nobody will take him seriously again. you say something over and over again and it starts sinning in to some people. republicans ought to be careful what they wish for.

>> politically i think that. -- >> i think the interesting question is this sort of thing and because it fades in the background -- >> say it's a referendum on impeachment. >> the oversight committee once the democrats take over will be in high gear. trey gowdy has not issued a single subpoena. >> with the news about the chinese company potential quid

pro quo here. there's a lot that they will dig into. they just don't want to use the i word yet. >> it's funny. you can run against a culture of corruption a lot easier than against "i," if you make it about the impeachment. >> the impeachment word is like a stick of dynamite. it's not clear who it blows up if it blows up. very powerful. you make a good point. it could also really fire up a lot of democrats. it could bring them out. >> be careful. >> midterm elections are all about intensity. >> republicans desperately need something. >> intensity is the key. if you can't generate intensity in any other way, you might as well. >> the fall is going to be lovely, isn't it. what a lovely fall.

civics. going to be a great civics lesson. also, what happens in vegas isn't going to stay there anymore. sports bets are on thanks to the supreme court. th this is what it really means. it's state capitols that are getting ready to cash in and quickly. we'll be right back. l of urgency... i think, keep going, and make a difference. at some point, we are going to be able to beat als. because life is amazing. so i am hoping for a cure. i want this, to uh, to be a reality. um, yeah. ♪now i'm gonna tell my momma

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welcome back. i'm obsessed with integrity or what appears to be a lack of it. the latest story raising eyebrows. sunday's tweet helping the phone company zte because too many jobs are being lost in china. china is giving 500 million to a trump project in indonesia. coincidence? maybe. it would be easy to dismiss if there wasn't a plague of stories with this same stench of an ethics violation or mr. trump using the office of the presidency to enrich his family personally. it would be easy to dismiss if there weren't a plague of stories about scott pruitt spending money and cozying up. if there weren't stories about the president's son-in-law having to update his disclosure forms 40 times or his hud secretary ordering a $31,000

dining room set by accident. why haven't we heard about any of these stories? maybe it's congress. maybe they don't want to investigate. instead of hearings, we get congressional crickets. maybe there's too many of them at once. maybe we've got from too big to fail to too much to read. maybe we've been focused on the russia scandal that we don't have the band width for out rras that don't immediate the treason criteria. none of these meet that the way russia does. maybe it's like mr. burn who had so many diseases all at once that none of them could do him any harm. >> any's the door to your body. these are oversized november

novemberty -- novelty germs. here is what happen when they all try to get through the door at once. move it. we call it three stooges syndrome. >> yes the simpsons and the three stooges are fun. a lot has been swept under the rug while looking at russia, again properly so. that rug is starting to get a little lumpy. we'll be right back. let's get s. show of hands. who wants customizable options chains? ones that make it fast and easy to analyze and take action? how about some of the lowest options fees? are you raising your hand? good then it's time for power e*trade the platform, price and service that gives you the edge you need. alright one quick game of rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3, go. e*trade. the original place to invest online. i'm trying to manage my a1c,

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wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. welcome back. should we place bets on how fast we're going to be able to place bets on sports now. pretty soon you won't have to go to vegas anymore if you want to legally bet on the super bowl or the world series or the nba finals this year. the supreme court struck down a federal law that required states to ban storports gambling. states could take advantage.

eight have laws that will legalize this and a dozen more might consider new laws of their owns. this is going to shake state politics and budgets. not to mention the way we watch sports. it's clearly a game changer. joining me now is a governor of one of those states that's ready to move. governor, welcome to the show. >> great to be you. >> why is this special session worthy, governor? >> well, for a couple of reasons. i would have done this back in 2013 when i first raised the issue when other states passed the law to be ready in the case that the supreme court ruled in the way they almost had to rule. you can't allow sports betting if four states and say no other state can do it. it didn't make any sense. on the other hand there was not a willingness and legislature to

take it up in 2013. legislature tried twice in the last two sessions. without a clear decision they weren't ready to do it. now we have a clear decision. we can can watch money, connecticut dollars go to oifr states and be invested in other people's incomes or ask that it happens in our own state. the same thing would stand true of online betting as well. other state vs s have online betting. there's no doubt some number of people in connecticut are participating in that. why should we not make it available in our own state. >> before i figure out what you want to use the revenue for an specifically, i'm curious if you would like the federal government to leave you states alone to do this on your own or would you like to see a federal regulation structure of some sort so that we don't have 50

different laws on where and how you bet on sports? >> i think it should be left up to the states. i think there are people who are arguing it should be done on a federal level. they tend to be the leagues that sponsor many of the games that bets will be placed on. they're looking for a percentage of that revenue. i think that's appropriately a state revenue and in the a leave revenue. they make lots of money. i would not advocate that. on the other hand if a majority of states or large number of states were prepared to move that that direction based on discussions on a state to state basis, i wouldn't rule it out.

the idea that one state should step forward and do that and no other state has, that doesn't make sense. the idea you'll use the federal government to impose that, that doesn't make sense. >> give me a guesstimate of how much annual income would like to see? >> can i say one other thing and i'll give you my best guess? >> yeah. >> we have lottery. that's a form of gaming. we have scratch off, lotto. this is not new. what was ruled by the supreme court is the federal government can't grant this right to some states and not grant it to all states. that's the basis. i think there's fair amount of money that could be raised. as i'll point out, if you do a combination of sports betting and online betting we're talking about tens of millions of dollars on state income on an annual basis and perhaps substantially higher.

>> every politician would come on promising new money. the money was going directly to the schools. only going to benefit education. here was the problem. it turned out to be replacement money, not additional money if you get my drift. it became budgets and then it was of no added value for the state taxpayer, which is how it was presented. >> i'm not sure you can say that completely because in the ups and downs of state economies you might have seen further cuts in those systems. i get the argument. that was made in connecticut in 1982 when the lottery was brought on board. again, government is big. it paves the road and gets the snow off as well. it is one big organization. i understand it's a political argument to say we're only going

to use this money for this purpose. i'm argumenting that about transportation dollars. i'm the first governor to stop sigh siphoning off that money into the general fund. i prosuppopose a constitutional amendment that says if money can only be used for that purpose. government is a big unwieldy thing and spends money to lots of different places. >> the money, you don't want it earmarked for specific thing. whether it's for teacher salary or things like that, you view it as keep it to the general fund. don't put yourself in that trap? >> if we're going to do anything, put it on our debt. we, like many states have unfunded obligations that were allowed the accumulate over many decades. a lot of that having to do with guarantees to employs. i've been in a nechb and a half year struggle to turn that around. one of the ideas that we're

toying around with is monotizing our lottery for the benefit of our state employees and plans. >> interesting way of doing it. thanks for coming on. >> thank you. will north korea pull out of that summit or will president trump draw a line in the sand? the white house is responding to north korea's threat, in a minute. every way we look out for those we love is an act of mutuality.

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welcome back tonight in meet the midterms. we know it's an election day but we have something else to focus on the democrats are facing a steep price tag to hold onto bill nelson's senate seat in florida. republican candidate rick scott and his allies are out spending democrats 50-1. 8.8 million versus 185,000. that's according to the latest ad spending data. scott's personal wealth is part of the reason why republicans wabtsed him to run. he spent 75 million of his own money to end his first term in 2010. money doesn't always guarantee success. it's still early. all this money fighting over that small swath of 6% of all voters but advertising in the sun shishine state is expensive.

it costs 2 to 3 million p$3 mil week. every dollar democrats spend on defense is one dollar they can spend on offense. now you see why the florida senate race is such a big deal to the republicans. we'll be right back with the lid. this endangered species is getting help from some unexpected friends. these zebra and antelope. they're wearing iot sensors, connected to the ibm cloud. when poachers enter the area, the animals run for it. which alerts rangers, who can track their motions and help stop them before any harm is done. it's a smart way to help increase the rhino population. and turn the poachers into the endangered species. ♪ ♪ but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory.

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time mow for the lid. the panelist is back. north korea, this feels like kim jong-un testing. >> yeah. >> testing the resolve of president trump. >> we should have always expected this would happen. kim jong-un with the north korean regime, we've been down this road before. we've down been the road of having negotiations of talking up a potential resolution and yet here we are again with doubts araising in part because kim jong-un is untrustworthy. >> apparently we took him at his

word. he said he understood what those exercises were and they were defensive. >> that's never been their position. >> by the way, let me me put th white house put out official statement on the south korean media report. we are aware of the south korean media report. the united states will look at what north korea has said independently and continue to coordinate closely with our allies. in the words of sarah sanders. looks like the white house says we want to confer with the north koreans before we believe the south koreans. >> the question is to what has this build up with trump supporters practically promising a huge break through deal with north korea that no previous president has been able to manage, but it's going to happen for trump, to what extent has that strengthened kim jong-un's sense of his negotiating position in the sense that he is now already making trump a week after he called him a nicy nicy

man for returning our hostages who he took in the first place, right? >> thank you for not killing them this time. maybe if they said that. >> excellent that you didn't kill our hostages. >> thank you so much. you know, this was predictable that the north koreans would push because that's what they do. they are not reliable. >> why wouldn't you? why wouldn't anybody in this situation? let's not just put it like it is crazy, any negotiation, see what else i can get. >> right. >> the other problem is the standard we set is quite high, it is irreversible, permanent, verifiable denuclearization. we'll see what that means. it suggests a nonstep wise process. you're going to have the north koreans have to make the first move. are the north koreans willing to make the first move? >> do you think they're just dismantling the test site?

>> they have to because it is killing people. >> it doesn't work. >> so this is not out of the goodness of their heart? >> kim jong-un is not the most -- >> the timing of it makes it hard, given that we just rejected what in a previous situation, in another situation trump may have called a great deal, which is similar to the deal we had with iran, now the standard is complete and total capitulation, complete and total denuclearization that by the way we have total control over verification as well. >> you're right. there's no way. i go back to something, i think it was -- i think it was michael gersen, my never trumpers i get confused. when they said north korea without nukes is saudi arabia without oil. >> exactly. what else do they got. >> right, and they spent huge

amounts of money and effort and lord knows how many lives in prison and work camps to buy this insurance policy for that regime, and it's a pretty good insurance policy. >> worked so far. makes them relevant. gives them national identity. part of their national identity is being a nuclear capable country. >> and let's face it, the world treats a nuclear power differently from the way it treats anybody else. >> is there any move for the president other than walking away for now to make him -- if he does anything to look like he's not willing to walk away right now, is he already giving kim jong-un a win? >> once we verify that this is accurate? that's the scary question, is what's the fall back. are we back to hey, dotard, hey, bad boy, let's compare buttons, joke about nuclear war on twitter. like we don't know what the alternative is. >> i know what john bolton would want the president to say.

bolton would be like you better draw a line in the sand here, don't you think? >> the president would rather have a deal, and it is unclear whether he has agreed with what the terms are that have been set by everybody else in the government or whether he'll say look, it is more important for us, peel away the verifiable piece and this other piece. >> trump would want to be the one to make the last minute demand, he thinks of himself as a great negotiator. and he's probably not happy that kim jong-un -- >> now if he is going to live by his bark, he's got to now respond in kind. and he wants -- there's a point. i'll say the same thing, find out who wants the summit more. >> could be a rake vick moment. one never knows. >> fair enough. thanks. we'll see. that's what trump usually says, we'll see. we'll see what happens. up ahead, remembering a man truly in full.

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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. in case you missed it, journalism lost one of its iconic voices. tom wolf died in new york city. he wrote for harpers, the atlantic, "vanity fair." it was wolf's books that solidified his place in american culture, like "the right stuff."

"a man in full." "bonfire of the vanities." tom wolf was celebrated for his unconventional style of nonfiction writing. became known as the new journalism. and he was celebrated for his unconventional style of dress. it was always a crisp three piece suit, and almost always white. sometimes the matching hat and pocket square to go with it. a style he called neopretentious. some of his finest writing was about politics and was fodder of some of his lines. a cult is a religion with no political power. if a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested. none more apt for journalists than this one. there's no motivation higher than being a good writer. tom wolf, journalist, provok tour, and definitely a good writer, maybe even a great one.

tom wolf was 88. that's all for tonight. go binge his books. you binge tv shows. trust me. binge tom wolf if you've never done it. more tomorrow. good evening, ari. >> moving tribute. one of my favorite novelists. and as you mention, the bonfire of the vanities, one of the greatest books about new york, or law, or life that i can think of. >> you did the endorsement. that was a worthy endorsement. don't just trust me, trust you too. binge his books. >> a tribute to a great man with a lot of great books. this is i believe fair to say a double endorsement. >> absolutely. >> thank you, chuck. we begin tonight with breaking news. moments ago, a federal judge ruling robert mueller's case against paul manafort will move forward. this is rejection of some of manafort's arguments that robert mueller went beyond his