serving political point. but donald trump doesn't care about the perception he is a racist. it leads to the infearence he is a racist. >> thanks the my guests. that does it for our hour i'm nicole wall as. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi chuck. >> hi nicole, hampshire happy hump day. >> happy wednesday. >> if it's wednesday, there is the base, and the baseless. tonight, dismantling a conspiracy. >> informants are used all day every day by law enforcement. >> the white house shoots back. congressman trey gowdy's defense of the fbi's informant tactics. >> the president still has concerns about whether or not the fbi acted inappropriately. plus, hold the phone. the feds close in on michael cohen, digging into more than a million files seized from his cell phones. and a staggering loss of life in puerto rico. we will dig into that new study that finds thousands, not

dozens, died in the wake of hurricane maria. this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. ♪ good evening i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to a wednesday version of "mtp daily." investigators are closing in on michael cohen. mull ear's obstruction of justice investigation seems to be bigger than we thought. has he actually interviewed the attorney general? and the president is prepping himself for an interview. we begin tonight with a conspiracy theory about the russia investigation, and the cultish nature in which they are seemingly embraced. because if the truth will what happened doesn't matter, what does? which brings me to last night's trump rally. >> they had people infiltrating our campaign. can you imagine? can you imagine? >> do you believe the president that there was a spy planted in his campaign? >> absolutely.

yeah. >> so you believe president trump. >> yeah. yeah. >> when the president says there was a spy within his campaign do you believe him? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> now, there is no evidence behind the president's claims. but this afternoon the white house insisted that those claims need to be fully investigated. we'll have more on that in just a minute. you might argue they have been investigated. it's been six days since congressional investigators were briefed on classified documents that the president suggested would prove him right. but the emerging consensus from everyone who has spoken publicly about that briefing is that mr. trump is wrong. republican trey gowdy was briefed. he is a top ally. he ran the gop's investigation in ban ghazi. right now, even he is crisscrossing the air waves thoroughly debunking every single aspect of the president's conspiracy theory on this. what about trump's claim that there was a spy? here's gouty. >> when the president says spygate, there was no spy

inserted into the campaign, have you seen any evidence of that? >> i have not. that's an espionage term. that's not a law enforcement term. >> what about trump's claim that the fbi acted improperly because of their anti-trump bias. listen to this. >> i am each more convinced that the fbi did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got and that it has nothing to do with donald trump. >> and what about the president's claim this that was part of a witch-hunt? >> think about what the president said. he said i didn't clued with russia but if anyone connected to my campaign did i want you to investigate it. that's what the fib is diagnose. >> what about claim that the fbi was secreting gathering information about the campaign. >> the fact that two people who were loosely connected with the trump campaign may have been involved doesn't diminish the fact that russia was the target and not the campaign. >> what about the president's

legal team claiming that an interview with mueller's witch-hunt would be a perjury trap? >> i think you ought to sit down with bob mueller -- you told us publicly there was no collusion. you told us publicly there was no obstruction. if i were my client i would say if you have done nothing wrong then you need to sit down with mueller. >> if gowdy said of approximate, if trump is innocent why aren't he and his legal team acting like it. instead he and his attorney rudy giuliani making agents like truth is relative. obstruction is in the eye of the deholder. joining me, our panel for the day. all right. gowdy is gouty is quite the person to have affirming your mueller probe right now.

sarah huckabee sanders was asked about gouty's take on all of this. listen to her. this was an interesting back and for the and i want to get all of you in on this. listen. >> given what trey gouty said is the president prepared to retract his allegation that the fbi was spying on his campaign. clearly still cause for concern that needs to be looked at. let's not forget that the deputy director of the fbi was actually fired for misconduct. the president is concerned about the matter in and we are going to continue to follow the issue. >> gouty was in the briefing. he knows what was done and he is saying these allegations are baseless, there was no spying on the trump campaign. >> again, certainly, the president feels there is cause for concern and it should be looked at. we would like to see this fully looked into and we will continue to follow that matter. >> based on what evidence. >> sorry john we are going to keep moving. >> amy? wow. >> this has been the go-to strategy from the very beginning, which is we don't want to talk about the specifics. would want to make sure that the entire process itself is

tainted. it's worked among republicans. it wasn't just those folks who were at the rally. i was sitting in a focus group. you talked about this most recently peter hart's focus group for emory university outside of milwaukee. the republicans in that room parroted all of trump's talking points on mueller, including the word witch-hunt it has worked effectively. i don't think gouty coming out today or yesterday with indications that this was indeed above board that the fbi should be believed is going to make a wit of difference with those voters. the ground -- they have done a good effective job of seeding the ground, watering it, and it's spreading out. >> there is people that i know and work with very closely in this town who have said they are starting to believe there are nefarious things happening at the fbier it's working all over america. >> it is. that has been the plan, to sew that seed and continue to water

it until it germ nats. now it is germinating and they are cultivating it. the narrative is exactly what trump wants to get out there, that there is no collusion,s that witch hunt. those words, those key words. and to the point and to the extent that his base can parrot that, that's one thing. then when it gets beyond the base -- and that's the goal of the repetition, to sew just a little bit of a seed of doubt, just enough so the american people, when they hear the report from mueller, hear the pushback from each folks lie gouty that go that doesn't seem right. they begin to doubt the facts as the facts are revealed to them. >> anida, do you think the president has inoculated himself from the worst that mueller could fine. >> i think he has with his base. the problem is that his base is still only his base and it's not the country so far. >> hasn't shrunk. >> it hasn't shrunk. but it hasn't grown. >> okay, it hasn't? >> many of those people who voted for him who were

independents, who were a lesser of two evils are indeed people that he's not reaching with this. and i think that you have seen this -- and the other thing that you see chuck very clearly as you go around the country is that every time he says no collusion, exclamation point, right, that it excites the democrats base even more so. and so this is actually -- it is a tale two of bases. and it is a base -- and one of the things that we learned in the obama administration of course is you can't transfer your personal popularity in a midterm election. and that's an interesting point here. >> i want to play something else here. gowdy brings up a point that i have wondered why it isn't a more effective talking point among those that are trying to convince people about the president, custom is why doesn't he act innocent? >> that's -- you remember, democrats put that memo out last week saying, hey, you guys, we did a lot of polling, hinting hint, talk about the number of actual indictments, the number

of actual guilty pleas. if there was no there there, then you wouldn't get these. what democrats do is they go down -- and trump is really good at getting them to do this, go down the rabbit hole and talk about he is obstructing this because he doesn't believe in the rule of law, and it's nazi germany. and we are headed into this disaster. >> they would be better off just going what are you afraid of? >> right. exactly right. >> right? it is an interesting -- >> just period. >> from day one the real has been if you are innocent, why are you acting guilty? people understand that. i think as a general message he's not acting innocent. and you know he calls for a lot of investigations but there is one investigation that he is dying to shut down. >> i want to play for you -- it is interesting to hear what gouty said, michael. if he were my client i would be telling him if you have got nothing to hide, talk to them. here's rudy giuliani. >> an investigation that we thought was rigged was rigged from the very beginning never should have started we are more convinced as we see it this is a

rigged investigation. i'm not saying mueller is illegitimate i'm saying the basis on which he was appointed is illegal legitimate. comey wrote a memo and leaked it illegally through a professor. hence we have mueller, illegal. no basis. >> it's fascinating how the strategy of giuliani appears to be to focus on the obstruction charge which in my mind is the tiniest portion of the investigation. >> it is the tiniest pouring of the investigation. but i think it is an essential linchpin for mutualer. >> do you? >> i have always said that that's -- the money trail and this piece out here on obstruction are the things that can really trip this process up for the president. because at the end of the day i bet they converge at a point. i bet you will see they converge. the money interest that trump had, the business deal he was trying to cut in russia. the rip he had -- >> it might not be about the

russia impact but it's more about his businesses? >> his businesses. it wraps back around when it started to bubble up that information was being discovered about the relationships and the nature of those relationships that translate to his business. that's what he wants to shut down, which is why it gets back to the first thing in his campaign, he won't show you his tax returns. because his corporate tax returns give you the footprint you need to follow at the end of the day. >> i don't think you would have scripted him better on that one. >> no, i wouldn't have. one of the things that's so interesting, chuck, is that there is one place in washington that isn't leaking and doesn't talk about this. it is the investigation. when we occasionally get a glimpse, for instance when we got a glimpse of michael cohen's business dealings for example, and it turns out they have known that for months, none of us knew they were looking at these things. so at the end of the day we don't really know. what we do know is that they are running a very tough investigation over there and that they do have indictments. >> i got more from vaughn hill

who was at the rally last night in tennessee. here's some more things where you can clearly tell the president is having an impact. take a listen. >> do you believe there is a deep state. >> absolutely. >> working in this administration. >> absolutely. yeah. >> that concerns you? >> there is a big concern. >> do you trust the cia? >> nope. >> and fbi. >> absolutely enot. >> the justice department? >> nope. >> jeff sessions? >> nope. >> rod rosenstein? >> nope. i don't trust the government whatsoever. >> you don't trust the cia and the fbi? >> i don't -- >> none of us have. didn't trust brennan clapper, all of them trying to take him down. yes i think there is deep state. >> deep state has to go. whole swamp has to go. if it weren't for trump we would be in a big mess right now. >> do you have confidence in our institutions. >> with trump at the head, yes. >> i don't think nixon had supporters that were that die hard at that time, amy. i don't know -- i certainly

don't believe there was somebody dressed in a sequin coat during the watergate years on nixon's behalf. >> maybe not. >> those are devoted folks. >> and look we talked about this before. anita is exactly right. he has a devoted base, but it is not as big or as deep as the people who hate him. right? so the strong disapprovers are twice as big as the strong approvers. that said, elections are not won on a national vote. we learned that. where those lovers and where those haters live becomes very important. i will say this. i think this idea that the institutions are totally broken so all you can do is trust the person, you can trust the institution, that didn't start with trump. that has been going on for a long time. i don't like you institution, but i trust it if anita or michael is at the head of it. >> here the sum of that query we would like to get an answer to. you asked the question is there

a deep state? >> yes, there is. >> what evidence do you have? do you trust the cia? no. why? because i bet you when you start to drill down with them the specifics of what animates and motivates that passion against these institutions that -- to correct the record here, two or three years ago they were firmly in support of. these same republicans were not here creaming against the fbi. i want to know what happened. that to me is an important question. >> here's a question where i want the table to go to as our out question. why hasn't the president fired sessions? he has done everything to say he wishes he would quit, wishes he never appointed him. my god, today i wish i had, quoting trey gouty. why don't you think he has? >> i will start by saying nixon at the end of the day had to leave office not because of anything legal but bought his support crumbled in the united states senate. i think at the end of the day this president or somebody around him understands that the

united states senate and his support with the republican senate is the one thing he can't risk right now. >> i think that's a very, very -- >> firing sessions is that -- somehow sessions is the bridge too far. >> sessions has the house and senate behind him. >> as far as firing mueller. >> i don't think muellers that same protection. >> i'm with her. i think sessions matters. >> i'm more with amy. i think mueller gets the same degree of protection for pretty much the same reasons. the blil fallout is too great. it exposes the president in a time and a place he doesn't want to be exposed. so he has backed off of that. >> then you really have to answer that question, what do you have to hide. >> did any of you read that piece in think, has bob mueller interviewed jeff sessions? is it possible that jeff sessions has been interviewed by bob mueller? >> we don't know. >> but that story today made me

think, you would assume he is at least somebody they would like to talk to. >> yeah. i think the thing that frustrates trump is he is realizing mueller has more aces to play than he does and that's it. >> you are sticking around. up ahead, is the russia investigation closing in on michael cohen? how much michael cohen is a part of the russia probe. why a judge's decision today over the fbi raid on his office could play a critical role. powerful potential... signature toughness... and one more thing... the world comes with it. the new, reimagined 2019 jeep cherokee.

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technology and more and butch.aura. and tank. and tiny. and this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace. laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but she's not much on "articles of organization." articles of what?

so, she turned to legalzoom. they helped me out. she means we helped with her llc, trademark, and a lot of other legal stuff that's a part of running a business. so laura can get back to the dogs. would you sit still? this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. welcome back. the clock is ticking for michael

cohen. his attorneys now have just a little more than two weeks to finish going through the millions of pieces of evidence seized by the fbi from his office, home, and hotel room last month. and make attorney/client privilege claims. prosecutors say they have turned over most of the materials to cohen's legal team except two black buries which they are trying to get into and the contents of a paper sledder which they are currently working on putting back together. joining me now, tom winter who has been following the cohen saga and daniel goldman former district attorney for the southern district of new york. tamme, i know you are doing a bunch of stuff for us and for nightly. you were in the courthouse. what did you learn today? can you glean how much of the cohen investigation is all about southern district of new york versus what mueller might be intrigued about? >> right, so chuck that's a good question. i'll start with your last question first. we have been told since the beginning, since this first came up -- it's important to remember

that the search warrant was first exyou had -- executed i should say back on april 9th. this has been going on for some time, the review of the materials that were seized then and the investigation into michael cohen now going back at least several months. we were told at the time that this was an investigation that was coordinated with the special counsel's office. at this point we have seen no filings here that suggested that robert mueller's staff or his team is more hands on than they were before. we have seen nothing that indicates they are necessarily totally hands off. that's something that at this point that coordination continues. i'm sure that if evidence is found that ties back to robert mueller's mandate that's information obviously that can be shared between the different prosecutorial office. as far as timing on this, i think what you saw today was the judge putting her foot down on the accelerator. she wants several million items of evidence or items seized documents, files, messages, she

wants cohen's team to wrap up their review of that to assert whether or not some of those items have attorney/client privilege get that to the special master to referee that has been pointed out here to meter out what should and should not go to prosecutors. i think what you are going to see is some sort of a wrap up of this review that we have been talking about now for months sometime toward the middle to likely the end of june. >> let me ask you the michael avenatti question, which is obviously the lawyer for stormy daniels. never have been sure how much -- how central this is to the cohen investigation, how much of a sideshow it is. it seems that the judge has certainly taken notice of mr. avenatti's publicity it tour i believe she called it at one point. he had made some allegations about tapes and he had wanted to be more involved in this. what's the status of his role in any of this? >> chuck, at this point we haven't seen any evidence at all

that there are tapes that have been leaked to the media as mr. avenatti has said. he said that one outlet has called him about recordings that may have been made. he has said those recordings are between michael cohen and stormy daniels former attorney keith davidson. to this point we haven't heard any of those recordings, reason is seen any filings. the judge today didn't seem to probe deeply into that other than we found out from michael cohen's attorneys they have recordings and they are under lock and key. we don't know who is on the tapes. we heard nothing said about the president being on the recordings. mr. avenatti didn't assert that in the courtroom today. at this point, we don't know what are on those recordings. we do know there are recordings. and we know from michael cohen's attorneys that they have those. as far as how those recordings came to be and what they are all about it's not something that the judge delved into in the

proceedings today. >> did she put a gag order on him or say if he wants to continue to be -- to try to -- i was confused by her reference to the publicity tour. >> sure. so she made a point to say this wasn't a derogatory thing sha she was saying but she said as far as his publicity tour and he has the right to speak, she said. if he was to be admitted which means he is allowed to practice law in the southern district of new york -- he is admitted into courts in california but if he was to be admitted into this courthouse he would have to comply with local rules, that means that his disclosure of non-public information, statements he may make about michael cohen that he may be making now on his various cable tv appearances and his discussions with reporters, he would not be allowed to make those statements. she is cautioning him and saying if you want to keep doing what you are doing with respect to your media appearances keep in mind if i bring you in.

>> careful what you wish for. >> you might get what you wish for and you might be cut off. >> if you enjoy tv you don't want me to approve what you asked for. tom winter i know you have more prep work for nightly. thanks very much. let me turn to daniel goldman a former u.s. attorney from the southern district of new york. i want to start with this -- my entire staff we are all obsessed with one aspect of this. paper shredder? how often in the history of the southern district of new york are you putting together pieces of shredded paper to search for destroyed evidence? >> i'm not familiar with any from an actual paper shredder. but i had cases where we had torn up paper that we found in trash cans and we put it back together and used it at trial. obviously the natural inference is to think that if something is shredded the person who shredded it doesn't want anybody to see it.

the fbi is very good at meticulouscally taking the shreds and putting them back together. it depends how good the shredder is. we will have to see if they are able to do it. >> does that make it that much more of a credible document in a courtroom, you know, if you are able to put together a shredded document for a defense or somebody being prosecuted, is that -- for a prosecutor, that must be an impressive piece of evidence. or no? >> the question is whether he was trying to destroy the evidence when he -- they knocked on his door and they were trying to walk in and he quickly went to shred a devastating document or whether it's just ordinary business documents that have identification information that he has a practice of shredding. so, yes, if it is something that he was trying to do very hurriedly as they were coming in his door then that's great evidence as you would imagine. >> all right of so you have seen -- is we hear like millions of files off of a couple of cell

phones. sometimes i know that numbers get inflated to show -- so you can -- technically there is millions of files. give me a layman's term. millions of files from two cell phones means what? >> i was surprised to hear there are a million files from two or three of his cell phones. that's a lot of material from a cell phone. that's often what you might get from a computer with all of the sort of data and encryption stuff that comes with a computer. that's a lot of documents from cell phones. cell phones just, you know, by way of explanation, cell phones are often the best sources of evidence. >> interesting. >> in today's day and age. as you can imagine on your smart phone chuck i'm sure you have your e-mail, you are texts, you have internet serves. you use it on a regular basis. and what we found increasingly since the advent of smart phones is they are often gold mines for evidence. what's interesting in particular about this case is they took

mandalay bay's cell phone straight from his hand. he had no idea they were coming. he was unable to delete anything. so they literally grabbed it and they imaged it. my guess is that some of the best evidence that they are going to see of ongoing crimes -- remember, ongoing crimes -- but they could date back months or potentially years because people don't erase a lot of things from their cell phones. that may be a treasure dove of evidence and that's a lot of material. >> last quick question. apologize for making you answer quickly. if you were in the southern district of new york would you find michael avenatti an aset or a liability? >> if i were trying this case i would probably find him to be a little bit of a liability in the sense that i think he is trying to interject himself in this case where he really doesn't have a strong reason to be there. and even today after that court hearing he ended up withdrawing

his motion to intervene in the case. >> yeah. >>. so it depends -- a lot of it is inside baseball. but it depends if he is asse asserting the privilege of stormy daniels that means the investigation may be impaired to get to the bottom of what actually happened between stormy daniels's previous attorney and michael cohen. and there are allegations they were sort of in cahoots. but they may not be able to get to the bottom of that if avenatti is involved. >> thank you very much, appreciate you coming on and sharing your views. up ahead, nearly a year after hurricane mar re ravaged puerto rico we are learning the loss of life might be much much worse than what the government officially says. we will get the latest on the ground in puerto rico next. america's best-selling brand? by opening new doors to big possibilities with the first ever ford ecosport. woman: my niece maria. maria: hi! woman: perfection! by connecting drivers to what's important. maria: i love that.

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welcome back. "tonight, i'm obsessed with" the relentless pursuit of the truth. if you were watching president trump's speech in nashville last night, it was not easy to find. >> there has never been an administration that has done what we've done in the first year and a half. >> actually, he ranks behind other presidents in passing bills into law. >> wages. for the first time in many, many years, are funlly going up. >> nope. wages went up during the final years of the obama presidency, too. >> we passed the largest tax

cuts, and reform in american history. >> not true. by either inflation adjusted dollars or as a percentage of gdp. >> african-americans vote for democrats for the most part. you know, vast majority. they have been doing it for over 100 years. >> please see voting rights act of 1965. 53 years ago. in the end, mexico is going the pay for the wall. >> not according to the president of mexico. >> still, if you searched hard enough, you could mime -- mine a few real facts. we found a couple of then. >> this is the state of country music. >> it's the state of davy crockett. i went to maine. i love maine. we won two world wars. and we put a man on the face of the moon. >> all right. honestly, did we really put a man on the moon? i'm just kidding. more and more people are saying it's not true.

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dags ahead before the official start of the hurricane season we are getting new numbers about how bad the last san was. a harvard study estimates that the actual number of people who died in puerto rico could be as more than 70 times the number reported. think about that for a minute. they admit their findings aren't precise. they surveys nearly 3,000 households asking about causes of death and comparing those numbers to last year and attributing it to the whole island. researchers estimate that many of these people died from things

like lack of electricity or medical care in the aftermath of that category four storm last summer. here's what the puerto rico governor had to say about this new report. >> we want the real number to come out. we had a -- that was subpar. we recognize it. now towards the future we want to make sure it is effective and it's not only a good one but can actually be a model. >> gabe gutierrez is in puerto rico and joins me now. let me start with this first question, which is the death toll number was from this estimate was a big headline. and it was a dramatic headline. how was it received on the island? >> well, chuck, good afternoon. people here on the island, they are frustrated but they are not altogether surprised. we have been hearing for months now that the death toll that the government was officially rep t

reporting really didn't capture the full scope. as you mentioned the study from harvard university is an estimate. the researchers admit that but they say it's also possible the death toll could actually be higher. even thousands higher. there is no way to know. local officials here on the island deflected a lot of the questions about the new study they welcome the study and welcome the inpuchlt they are waiting on another study they commissioned from george washington university that's due out later this summer. but they admit there is no firm grasp on how many people died in the aftermath of this, chuck. what we are seeing right now, the government really is trying to make a show of how they say they are preparing for this hurricane season which starts on friday. we are here at a fema supply warehouse, one of four of them that have sprung up around this island, on each corner of the island. in this one in particular, there are 2 million meals, 800,000 meals, and they say they are working on distribution plans to get these to the people that need them do you remember this hurricane season.

but there is a lot of skepticism here chuck. of course there is a lot of people still without power here. 95% of the island is reporting power generation there are still small pockets in mountain communities that are desperate for power. they are hearing those numbers, that property from harvard. to them it's validating what they have known for months as they see it, that the government didn't take this seriously enough. want to ask you about the supply center a minute. how many people are they still trying to get supplies to? how many people are still dealing with fema basically living off of maybe having to get the government's help on different things because of maria? how many are still in puerto rico sort of displaced maria victims? >> well, a lot of the people that were displaced chuck from maria have actually fled to the u.s. mainland. tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands have found their way into florida.

here on the island the estimates vary depending on who you ask. the mayor of san juan for example, said there could be 80 to 100,000 people throughout the island still without power. not many in shelters because many have gone to live with family members. we heard today from fema officials that there were 59,000 homes that had blue tarps on them and they are still working on repairs for this. and now we are headings into the new hurricane season. the commissioner told me, he said this island's electrical grid simply cannot withstand another massive hurricane. he said it. it's not a situation that they can kpapt that the electrical grid is going to withstand this. it's been such a challenge over the last six to eight months since the storm. they are preparing -- even a category 1 storm could knock out power to virtually the entire island again. what they are trying to do here is they are trying to ensure that they have enough adequate supplies to be able to then get in more supplies from the u.s.

mainland. this is just -- these supplies will hold people over for just a few days here. it is a logistical challenge on an island. go ahead. >> no. i was just going to say, is there a different battle plan that fema has? are they going to try to put themselves all over the caribbean to be more nimble, to get faster response times considering that prieto is more vulnerable -- you are right, with this grid, we heard it really couldn't -- honestly, maria was big enough to knock of the out the first time. so it never really fully recovered. so a tropical storm may knock it out. is fema going to handle this differently? >> that's what they say. they say they have learned a lot of lessons from hurricane maria. what struck me though, i was talking to a fema administrator here on the island. he says in hurricane maria fema had just several dozen staff members here on the island. this time they say they will have 3,000 personnel if there is

a hurricane bearing down on puerto rico. these supply centers, the one i'm standing in right now, they say they have four of them on different corners of the island. so if a storm hits one specific area they will be able to bring in supplies from another area. they say they have learned their lessons, but the critics who feel the federal or local governments didn't do enough they still feel the government didn't understand the full scope of this disaster and the harvard study reopened some wound that are lingering. >> and frankly your report to me only raies more questions about the federal government's interactions in particular. anyway, gabe gutierrez, much appreciated. thanks for coming on and getting down there and sharing this story with millions. up ahead, mitt romney and president trump. let's just say the relationship, as facebook would put it s complicated. just ask mitt romney. helped put a roof over the heads

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welcome back. today in meet the mid terms, utah senate candidate mitt romney is walking a fine line when it comes to how cozy he wants to get with president trump ahead of his home state's june 26 primary. one of his home states. romney told garrett haake two days ago he wouldn't point to the president as a role model for his grandchildren but last night during a primary debate he i practiced the tough talk on

trade deals and negotiation. and he brought up when the president called him a phony and a fraud in 2016. >> i agree with the president on those things. i'm happy to stan with the president whenever i feel that he is doing something that's right for the country. >> as the "washington post" noted today, rockne like many republicans are carefully threading the needle when it comes to president trump, praising the president some, but not too much. and counter-ing him some, but too much. he has more leeway out of utah than most republicans in romney's position. that helps him a bit, too. we'll be right back after the break. but for cyber criminals it's plenty of time to launch thousands of attacks. luckily security analysts and watson are on his side. spotting threats faster and protecting his data with the most securely encrypted main frame in the world.

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it's a smart way to eat lunch in peace. you finished preparing overhim for college.rs, in 24 hours, you'll send him off thinking you've done everything for his well-being. but meningitis b progresses quickly and can be fatal, sometimes within 24 hours. while meningitis b is uncommon, about 1 in 10 infected will die. like millions of others, your teen may not be vaccinated against meningitis b. meningitis b strikes quickly. be quick to talk to your teen's doctor about a meningitis b vaccine. time now for "the lid." the panel is back. guess what, it is a celebrity edition of "the lid." >> every day is celebrity day.

you. >> might just want to talk about roseanne and donald trump. but guess who was at white house today. ? kardashian. >> i know. >> what happens when the kardashian and the trumps meet. there you go, there is the actual you go. >> her husband is his biggest fan. >> i understand that, i'm talking about when you physically are in the same room. >> i'm surprised we don't have meetings, that there is not going to be a reality show based on that. >> this is possible. >> think about it. >> yeah. you know if the bloofs were in charge. >> i'm suggests there be a serious discussion on criminal justice reform. >> they have an interesting coalition of people around it. the president finally weighed in. we both sort of came to find a way to make it about himself. this is what he said. bob ire called valerie jarrett to let her know abc does not tolerate comments like those about that.

gee, he never called president donald j. trump to apologize for the comments. >> is this something we didn't know about? >> the president's appearance on blackish for tv. this is aall about the president and the hurt feelings because somehow this conversation on race and racism is track income a way that he doesn't like. he wants to try to figure out how to make it a little different conversation for himself. a little uncomfortable the truth of the matter is the president is exposed on this, rosanne is exposed on this. they're all exposed on the. the environment created culturally in this country right now is one that roseanne barr bar thinks she can tweet about it. >> they point out gemmal hill,

not like he said calling the president a white supremest on espn, joy behar and "the view." kathy griffin went on a rant, according to sarah sanders on "the view" and the last one, where is the apology for bob i caner hiring keith obieerman. that's what the president is referring to. >> i'm sure it was. you know this could have been a very easy one for the white house. right. to basically condemn the remarks as well, which i think many presidents almost every single president i can think of in mod enhistory would have had no trouble doing. it's interesting they made a conscious decision not to do that. you know. he didn't take it to himself. sarah sanders had every opportunity to say, of course we condemn those remarks, those sent imts. they don't do it. >> is it they or is it he? i think we all know. >> it's him. >> i worked, i think they've all worked for people that would be

immediately their instinct would be first distance yourself. >> and to say, remember, this i get attacked by the main stream media and these shows constantly. >> but that is a way to do it. >> there is a problem with those ways to do it. those attacks are based on the words and actions the president has made and said. so few want to call them attacks. there is a response, when you deny the existence of racism on its face, people will respond to that. so you can't call that an attack when you bo in the midst of charlottesville and go there are good people on both sides. people are going to respond to that that's not personal to you. it's a reaction to what you said. this is different this is rosanne making a forward-leaning attack into an individual comparing her to an ape. >> that is not the same thing as saying your comments about charlottesville, your response to david duke are out of line.

>> what it comes to is this question president obama used to say it. george w. bush used to say it. do you understand the american story? and race is the american sin of the american story the american story continues to get better. but we have an original sen. you have to understand, race is different from all other name calling. it just is. >> no don'ting. that i think it was ironic, of course, all of this took place on a day if which starbucks had closed down its stores because race an issue in this country, continues to be an issue in this country and the corporation said, we're going to do something about it. >> as usual, corporate america the culture of america is far ahead from where the politics of south america. >> before we start holding up corporate america. is it possible it's those who spend more money? >> millennial's spend more money. >> that's a generation that is. >> and who are about to be the largest voting block in this

country. >> i can't let this go by since the makers of ambien, people of all racings, work on synofy, the scientific term to improve lives around people around the world, all pharmaceutical versus side effects, racism is not a side effect of any medication. amy, michael, anita, thank you. up ahead, burning questions about marshmallows and volcanos, naturally. signature toughness... and one more thing... the world comes with it. the new, reimagined 2019 jeep cherokee.

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well, in case you missed it, fact check, lava is hot and dangerous. just ask the u.s.-- geological tweet. is it safe to roast marshmallows over volcanic vents? assuming you had a long enough stick. here is a person doing it, roasting marshmallows over a anning aic volcano. we have a cool animation to explain why you shouldn't toast or roast your marshmallows over an active volcano him they were too busy today. they gave us this instead. the usgs says volcano vents could release sulfur dioxide or hydrogen sulfide. you know what that means? both are hazardous gases and

emit very unpleasant odors, by the way, marshmallows are made of sugar. here's an approximation of what might happen when you combine sugar with hydrogen sulfide. oh, yes, seriously, we get a call when that happens. do not roast marshmallows or anything else over the hawaii volcano. this is the s 'more you know. "the beat" with ari melber begins right now. >> conduct, i have heard of molten chalk lala have a cake, what i'm getting from you in the news is don't use real lava. >> that's my tip. you can, as long as it's gluten-free. >> okay. well, as you said the is 'more it debts crazy. tonight we begin with what documents did michael cohen put in this now as of this hour infamous shreder? and are there cohen tapes