and al sharpton. that does it for me. nicolle wallace will be back next week. i'm giving this show over to katy tur early. "mtp daily." it's starting early. hi, katy. >> what are you talking about? it's exactly 5:00. you said you were going to give it over early. then you kept talking and you gave it over on time. this weekend i'm going on meet the press. please tune in. >> meet the press with katy tur. >> they are letting me on. it's great. i'm excited. are you doing anything fun. >> i'm going to have a great time, but give chuck hell. >> john hilemon, thank you very much. if it's friday, i hate these blurred lines. tonight's the i alone presidency, from controversial pardons to a wall street leak. how president trump is flaunting unchecked power. >> i'm working. i'm working hard for you people. >> plus trading blows.

the president's tariffs are alienating u.s. allies. >> the idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the united states is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable. >> how the international backlash could hit your bottom line. and fighting words. inside the culture class over race, vulgarities, and american values. this is "mtp daily," and it starts right now. ♪ good evening i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." are there any lines the president cannot cross? because he is crossing a lot of them right now. and republicans in control of congress aren't doing much about it. the president is lying about evidence associated with the russia investigation. and about spies infiltrating his

campaign. all as part of an effort to undermine that investigation. he's pardononing people, perhaps sending a message to witnesses who might testify against him that they, too, could be pardoned. so stay strong. if an effort to prop up the dying coal industry his administration is reportedly weighing an unprecedented intervention in the u.s. energy grid which would basically order some folks to get their lick trits from coal plants. he tipped off wall street this morning about confidential employment numbers more than an hour before they were officially released. possibly to give himself some cover from last night's decision to slap steep tariffs on our closest allies in europe, canada, and mexico, renewing fears that he is leading us into a trade war. when given a chance to denounce a racist comment he instead attacks the press. he suggested one of his criminalityics should be fired for using offensive language

while painting him as the real victim. so where is the republican party? the party of the rule law? the party of lincoln? the party of tree trade? as former house speaker john boehner recently said, they are taking a nap somewhere. what are the consequences? well, here's where we are headed, according at least the former attorney general. >> you hear a lot about the possibility of a constitutional crisis coming. what's the trigger for that? are we already there? >> we are on what i have come to call, i think, the path of inevitability. we are going to be there at some point. it is pretty close to inevitable. >> joining me now from nashville is david french, senior writer for the national review. and with me tonight's panel, caitlyn huey burns. jonathan alter, and susan del percio, republican strategist and also an msnbc political

analyst. guys, welcome. first, david, i want to start with you. what's your reaction to eric holder? do you think we are heading towards a constitutional crisis? >> i think it's premature to make that prediction. i mean one may happen but let's look at what happened in the more than a year since trump has been president. he tweeted a lot of things, said a lot of things. but overall the system is held. you have not seen this president defy court orders or the supreme court. what you have seen is the american system as designed by the founders has a lot of checks and balances. now you can strain it at the joints but it takes an awful lot to create a real and genuine constitutional crisis. we are not there yet. i don't know that we will ever get there. >> here's what holder said about where we are going in terms of the justice department. take a listen to that. >> i suspect that we are on a path where there is going to be an inevitable clash. we are going to get to a point where the justice department simply will not go any further.

rod will not go any further and something is going to happen. i don't know who gets fired or what happens, but we are going to be -- buckle up your seat belt. >> david? >> you know, that's all certainly possible. but we can't forget that the united states has seen worse than what we are experiencing right now, by several orders of magnitude during the nixon administration. and the system held. thist system worked. i want to be really, really careful about using words like constitutional crisis. i do think that the president could act impulsively and create a political crisis. but a constitutional crisis is an order of magnitude greater than that. we need to be careful about our rhetoric. as you have seen time and again when you cry wolf and cry wolf and cry wolf when the wolf is actually at the doorknob believes you anymore. >> i understand that. listen to what john brennan said in an op ed in the "washington post." for more than three decades i observed and amized the traits

and tactics of incompetent and narcissistic foreign officials who did everything they could to exploit power. these demagogues routinely relied on lies, deceit and suppression of political opposition to cast themselves as popular heros and to mask self serving priorities. it never downawned on me we cou face such a development in the united states. here's the thing, i think if we had a different type of president in office, one of the things that he may have done over the past year and a half would set off real alarm bells of but he is doing these things, pushing these boundaries every day, sometimes multiple times a day. when you consider that, do you think that, i don't know, john, maybe eric holder is not sounding the alarm enough, maybe he is down laying it while john brennan is the one who is maybe looking at it more clearly? >> i think brennan has the right analysis here.

you know, patrick manhattan unanimous, the late senator had a phrase, he called it defining deviancy down. when deviant behavior becomes normal. and then suddenly it loses its kmats to shock. and that's when a society gets in trouble. -- its capacity to shock. that's and that's when a society gets in trouble. it's true that the system hasn't blown up, there is fair amount of resistance. i don't think it's true that it is much less serious than watergate. if you look at watergate, nixon didn't defy court orders or do some of the other thing -- >> he tried not to hand over tapes. >> he tried not to. he tried not to. but when the court ordered him to, he did. he resisted in certain ways. but the level of lying in this administration has already greatly exceeded that which was done in the nixon administration. and i think it is sort of silly to compare nixon and trump.

but this is extraordinarily u.s. corrosive and damaging to our system. >> there is a book out about the last days of the obama presidency as he was grappling with trump winning the presidency. he according to rhodes asks this question or says we are going to find out right now how durable our systems are, how durable our institutions are, how durable our relationships are with allies. >> sure. to david's point, that is holding up. but the president is certainly testing that. but i think what is important here is that the president and his allies and those supporting him are not going to listen to someone like eric holder. they are not even going to listen to people in the intelligence community. >> certainly not listening to john brennan. >> not john blendan. everything is viewed i think for worse in this partisan lens that everybody who disagreeing with you is not considered not right. also, we have to consider that the president has done all of these things with impunity. he hasn't been punished

politically. he hasn't suffered political consequences from this. during the election, he did all this and was elected. republicans in congress are in primary season right now. you have candidates running for office on the republican ticket who don't want to cross trump because that's just the reality of the republican base right now. that may change later on. we'll see. but at this point i don't see the incentive for them just from an analytical perspective to stop the president from saying these things. >> no incentive for them. but the republican party has always been a party that's been very serious about their principles, very serious about what they believe in and what they do not believe in. morals were certainly a big part of it. but also the rule of law was a big part of republican orthodoxy. they would tout it a lot. what did they go on this? >> i think to speaker boehner's point it's not in a the republican party is taking a .i

a. it is in a deep high better nation. ticking their head in the stand and saying we just need to survive. they don't care how far it goes. frankly they are taking a page out of donald trump's playbook as long as they are not suffering major consequences it's okay to continue. is it right. >> do you hear people like myself and david and others screaming as loud as we can? it doesn't seem to matter because that's the way things are going. to the earlier pony about when is there a constitutional crisis, how do you ganl it? i don't think we are anywhere near there. i think we are at a different crisis, and that is a conscientious crisis. what our leaders are allowing to be deemed as normal is a disgrace. >> david, what do you think about that. what -- if the republicans are napping what is going to be the thing that shakes hem awake? >> i like that phrase

conscientious crisis or crisis of conscience. i think there is a of the how of people who are setting aside a lot of values they advanced for the sake of attaching then selvesity at least for now to the trump administration. the question is, what does it take to sort of change the dynamic. really and truly, it takes election results. one of the things that really caused a lot of people who sort of held their nose and voted for trump to now be enthusiastically behind him, they never expected he would win. when he won they loved it and it shook up their expectations. these things happen in cycles. will the republican party love trump as much if there is midterm disaster? i doubt it. if there is midterm success this is going to be more of a trump party. there is a lot of people in washington, people i talked to who are hanging back. they don't love trump, they don't know what the future holtz holds. they don't know what to think.

that's not a profile in courage. but it's not wrapping their armed around trump. they are up in the air. >> he ran on politicians not being truthful. not being who they are. doesn't all of the things he has done in this white house, lied repeatedly, broken norms, doesn't that really pull off the mask for republican politicians more than anyone else to say that they really only care about getting reelected and keeping their seats as onned to what they actually signed -- as opposed to what they signed on for, which was protecting the constitution and doing what is right, being putting their country over politics? >> you only know you have values when holding those values has a cost. for a long time it was easy to say that you believed in those things and get elected as a republican. and to say that you believed them. then when donald trump comes along and you say character matters in a politician, lying matters even if the economy is good. and then that has a cost, and people go silent, then i doubt

they ever truly had that value in the first place. right now the values are being tested. >> here's where the republicans haven't gone silent. suddenly a lot of them woke up from boehner's word their nap when it comes the tariffs and trade. kevin brady, these tariffs are hitting the wrong target. sass, this is dumb. alexander, tennessee senator, these tariff will raise prices and destroy manufacturing jobs. paul ryan, i disagree with this decision. senator mike lee -- i'm sorry, this is pat toomey, he issing go to be cosponsoring mike lee's bill to reign in the executive brachl's power to impose unilateral tariffs like these. why is this what woke them up? >> it is the traditional disagreement the president and the republicans have had dating back to the campaign. >> this is the agreement? >> it is simpler.

look at the people making those statements. it's about their jobs. this is where they get to say i'm going to stand up because my constituents will vote for me later down the road. >> it's still -- >> it is not out of principle. >> what kind of impact is that actually going off? not any. my point is they have voice these concerns and the president goes ahead with it anyway. again, what is the political consequence. >> their vote. their vote. if they hold it against the president when he is trying to get something passed, that's their only chip. >> they are trying to protect the economy. they believe that protectionism hurts the economy. i think they are right about that, by the way. but that is an indirect way of saying i want to get reelected. because if the economy goes south over the summer their constituents are not going to be happy and it will be worse for the republican party. what is interesting is that they chose to take an issue like trade, which is really not a

matter of deep constitutional consequence, and speak out on that rather than on these assaults on our system, assaults on integrity, assaults on the truth. that's why they are deserving to be called banana republicans. they are lookeding like they are living in a banana republic. >> let's put a pin in it there. david french, caitlyn, jonathan, sus susan, stay with us. ahead, a meet the press exclusive. you wondering why i'm here today? chuck is in canada, he just finished interviewing president trudeau. he has tough words for president trump about those new tariffs. e. for leisure. so i go national, where i can choose any available upgrade in the aisle - without starting any conversations- -or paying any upcharges.

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welcome back. president trump is rolling the dice with a trade war that is infuriating some of america's closest allies. administration's new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from canada, mexico, and the european union are provoking swift backlash. all three are planning counter-tariffs on their own -- of their own, including other american goods like pork, apples, grapes, and certain kinds of cheese. president trump's response -- bring it on. along with morning tweets about the russia probe, jobs numbers, and samantha bee, which we will get to later, president trump wrote that canada has treated our agricultural business and farmers very poorly for a very long time. highly restrictive on trade, they most open their markets and take down their trade barriers. the reason, again, i'm hosting

this show today instead of chuck is because he went to ottawa to interview the canadian prime minister justin trudeau for sunday's meet the press. trudeau had some choice words about president trump's decision to move forward with tariffs. >> the idea that, you know, our soldiers, who have fought and died together on the beaches of world war ii, and in the mountains of afghanistan, and have stood shoulder to shoulder in some of the most difficult places in the world that are always there for each other -- somehow, this is insulting to -- the idea that the canadian steel that's in military vehicles in the united states, the canadian aluminum that makes your fighter jets is somehow now a threat -- the fact that -- i mean, next week we are hosting the g7 summit of world leaders. and the air field, the military base that air force one is going to land on was put there in

world war ii to protect an aluminum smelter that was providing to the military effort. the idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the united states is quite frankly insulting and unacceptable. >> what do you feel as if the president wants from you in putting these tariffs out there? >> i don't know. >> you don't know what he wants here? you don't know -- is this about a nafta decision? you don't have an idea what he wants. >> the reason i don't know is because he has talked about the fact this -- he is worried about trade surpluses and trade deficits around the world. well they have a $2 billion surplus on steel with us. so it's not like trade is imbalanced against the u.s. favor on this one. >> our panel is back. caitlyn huey burns. susan del percio. is trudeau laying it on thick there? >> yes, he should be. that's what his people want to do is stand up to donald trump.

donald trump said we don't need friends this the world. i think it's great that leaders are standing up now i don't know at what point of what mass it takes to shake donald trump a little bit to get him to start recognizing we have to have our allies in place. but -- >> does he just think that the allies are going to be there no matter what if we really need then? this sort of thing is not really going to move them because they need us ultimately more than we need them. >> i think that's the case. >> listen to what he said talking about north korea. everybody wants a solution here so everybody is going to be there for us. i think that's certainly a part of the mind-set. which is not an accurate one. i'm not saying that. i'm saying that's how he has been explaining it. the other thing about trade and tariffs specifically, is that he talks about it as something he campaigned on. certainly, he did. but a lot of these target the very voters who helped propel him to office. >> harley davidson, that's in

wisconsin. >> are going to be affected by this. right in and so this is -- this is where it can go wrong for high pressure. >> the canadians are actually targeting trump areas with a number of these retaliatory measures. look, sometimes history is about what didn't happen. and that has huge historical consequences. for 200 years, we have had a relationship with canada like this. we have never had any border disputes. we have been together in wars, as prime minister trudeau said. and we have been together very much in peace and building between our two nations the strongest continental economy the world has ever seen. by orders of magnitude. and to jeopardize this, even in a small way, to have even a lover's quarrel in a basically stable marriage is pointless. it's harmful to people on both side of the border, and it's reflective of the idea that this

president dup have a clue as to what he is actually doing. >> trudeau is still calling that meeting of nations, the g7. the french foreign minister isn't calling it the g7 mim. he is calling it the g 6 plus one. unfortunate we are going to have a g 6 plus one with the made to alone against everyone and running the risk of economic destagization. he is saying we are going to be i don't know the red headed stepchild of the meeting of nations. >> what is crazy is that normally, famously, canada is a boring story, the famous headline, worthwhile canadian initiative is supposedly the most boring headline ever written. boring is good when you are talking about global relations, g7 -- to turn the g7 and our bilateral relations with canada into a reality show is really dumb. unless your only point is to create reality shows. >> what happens next? >> i gave up guessing with

donald trump. >> does he pull back? >> today when he was talking about north korea and the summit and he said something really interesting, and it goes to this point. he said, you for example it's much better for japan and south korea because they are so far away. they -- you know, that place over there is so far away from the united states. no matter what happens we are okay, because we are us. i think that's the way donald trump likes to use it, as a way to reach out to his voters, who believe america first, america alone will be fine. >> is this all about perception for him? he wants one on one trade deals because he says they are going to be better and he wants to say he is the big negotiator. i don't think it's a lot about facts because what he does is he says something that's not true and then he continues to say it even when you say, that is not true. he bragged about it in march, "washington post" had a story about him telling his donors that he didn't even know what he was talking with, but he told

canada he had a trade deficit. >> here's the thing. in the discussion of pardons, these are things he can do alone. he doesn't need anybody else to make these things happen. that's why he likes it. he has given up on the fact that he is going to get anything done working domestically. and he is finally saying oh, wow, this is what i thought i could do as president. i can do anything by myself. it is a ego centric way of doing business. he is like acting out like a child by saying i can with a pen do this or pardon that. >> or maybe like a senile senior citizen when he says today i got a very entering letter from mr. kim and he hasn't even opened the letter yet? somebody tweeted if there was your grandmother you would say grandma, you have to open the letter first. >> he likes to tease. he says one thing and contradicts it for the

contradicts it. for the record, i have a red headed stepchild who i love very much. ahead, two comedians plow head first into controversy. thing have suddenly gotten very serious for rows ann bar and samantha bee. the clash between comedy and politics next. danced in a germe group. i wore lederhosen. when i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasn't finding all of these germans in my tree. i decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. the big surprise was we're not german at all. 52% of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. so, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. get started for free at ancestry.com. hey, i'm curious about your social security alerts. oh! we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites, so you'll be in the know.

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first, it was on. then it was off. now president trump says the summit with kim jong-un is back on the books for june 12th. a top deputy to the north korean leader paid a visit to the oval office earlier today. he hand delivered a letter to president trump, a letter the president described as very nice, and very interesting. even though he hadn't read the letter at the time. that followed a not as nice letter president trump wrote to kim last week cancelling the summit. the talks derailed after a north korean official lashed out at vice president pence, calling him a political dummy. but judging by the president today, relations have improved once again. >> went very well. it is really a get to know you kind of a situation. we are going to start a process. and i told him today, take your time. you can go fast. we can go slowly. but i think they would like the see something happen. and if we can work that out that would be good.

>> the president competing there with some tweets -- actual tweets from chirping birds which is not the trouble he typically has when it comes to tweets. the president said he is putting on hold new sanctions against north korea. we'll be right back. we're putting ai into everything, and everything into the cloud. it's all so... smart. but how do you work with it? ask this farmer. he's using satellite data to help increase crop yields. that's smart for the food we eat. at this port, supply chains are becoming more transparent with blockchain. that's smart for millions of shipments. in this lab, researchers are working with watson to help them find new treatments. that's smart for medicine. at this bank, the world's most encrypted mainframe is helping prevent cybercrime. that's smart for everyone. and in africa, iot sensors and the ibm cloud are protecting endangered animals. that's smart for rhinos. yeah. rhinos.

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i'm josh lip ton with the cnbc market wrap. the major indexes closing in the green today. stocks pushed higher by the strong jobs report. the dow rose 219 points. the s&p gained 29 point. the nasdaq closed 112 points higher. back to the jobs report. the u.s. economy shifting into hyper drive last month, adding 223,000 jobs, and cutting the unemployment rate the 3.8 rz approximate. average hourly earnings rose 2.7% over the past year. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "mtp daily." welcome back.

this week we saw two comedians stepping over line. conservative comedian roseanne barr's racist tweet about a former obamaed a strooiz visor and liberal comedian samantha bee's comment about ivanka trump. it reignited arguments on both sides of the aisle about what constitutes appropriate and acceptable language. both the left and right are accusing each other when it comes to hypocrisy when it comes to calling out offensive language. i'm joined by charlie sykes, and eric digins. charlie, first to you. what do you make of the reciprocal anger from trump, the white house, and conservatives towards samantha bee? >> first of all, i mean we live in this era of what aboutism. we are in a downward spiral of incivility. i think it's revealing that after this textbook case of

racism that we got from roseanne barr the response from the white house of course was not to express outrage or concern, but simply to say, well, what about this liberal comedian, who by the way also crossed the line, also crossed the line and was also, by the way -- since we are talking about comedians, grossly unfunny is this this is part of the problem. this is what you get, the degraded political culture and dialogue that we are getting. that you do have this duelling hypocrisy. and how hypocritic is it that we are talking about the trump white house expressing indignation and outrage over sexist slurs. you probably saw that c worth displayed at trump rallies you cuffed throughout 2016 so there is a little bit of fake posturing going on around here. >> the thing about that word, i never heard donald trump say it

but he called ted cruz the p word on stage, and hillary clinton was shlonged by obama. he has a history but when it comes specifically to that word i never saw the president call out to any of these crowds and say to this person, hey, this is too far, this is not okay, you can do it. he almost condoned it. he certainly capitalized on that sort of anger and behavior in order to propel himself to the white house. eric, what do you think? why hasn't the white house come out, though, and tried to take a -- if they want to take a moral stan against samantha bee, should they have taken one with roseanne barr first? >> well, i mean, obviously, this is a white house that guess after the people they feel are attacking them. and they viewed roseanne as an ally. that's why they haven't spoken out against her. i think it is a mistake to focus too much on who used what word when. samantha bee admitted she made a mistake in using that word. i think she did.

i think what is important is you have to look at a broadcaster or a performer's history. do they have a history of using sexist language, of demeaning women, of saying things that are racist or homophobic or islamophobic. ? roseanne barr's case she had a history of saying things on social media that were in a similar vein. she had said -- she had compared former obama aide susan rice also, another black woman, to an ape. she had said disturbing thing about islam. and she had also retweeted conspiracy theories. so i don't think you can compare the two cases simply because samantha bee admitted she crossed the line but when you look at her history her reports and her comedy have been about looking out for women's issues, about highlighting when women are oppressed or when women are held back. and she crossed the line in using this word. and she has apologized for it. so i think these two things are very ditch. >> are we perhaps in peril doing

down a slippery slope if we continue to demand apologies from dmeed yons? their job is to push the envelope not to say this is pushing the envelope. >> i think the real problem we have here is we are focusing on the wrong issues. it is not the use of an individual word. in the case of roseanne barr and what she did it's about echoing a trope of stereotyping comparing black people to apes that we have been dealing with for hundreds of years. it's been rapt inside a lot of our media for many years. trike to eof the re rad kate that systemic prejudice. trying to get people understand that comparing black people to apea extends the stereotype that has held black people down for many years. i think people are trying to conflate these things because

they don't want to have that discussion about systemic prejudice. they don't want to have that discussion about when a performer says something that reflects a wider problem in society. i don't think anyone thinks that samantha bee was trying to reach out to sexists in the audience by using that word. we are talking about two different things here. i don't -- i think the evident to conflate them is an effort to make roseanne look like she was just cracking an off-color joke rather than doing something that was much more damaging. >> charlie i'm old enough to remember when donald trump ran on being politically incorrect and ran against those who are clutching their pearls at everything. >> exactly. of course, he in fact has created an environment in which people feel they can push these lines. go back and look at the twitter feed of dinesh d'souza, the things he said referring to barack obama as a boy out of the ghetto and thing like that.

you know, going to this point of the danger of having a double standard. look, they are not equivalent. i am not arguing that they are equivalent. the trump white house i think is very cynically using samantha bee in order to take attention away from the racism of somebody who was touted by the president of the united states. but on the other hand, you know, isn't this kind of a moment to realize that, you know, if you want to have a higher moral standard here, if you want to have the higher ground, then don't find a way to excuse vulgar sexist language as opposed to vulgar racist language. i'm in the saying they are equivalent because i don't think they are. but i do think that there is a real danger for people falling into kind this double standard. by the way, it's hypocrisy olympics all the way around here. >> let's remind people that samantha bee was talking specifically about a trump policy that was just enacted at the border ripping families apart.

here's what her statement about that says today, the white house's war on the full frontal host risks calling more public attention -- that's not the one. we spend the day wrestling with the repercussions of one bad word when we should have spent the day incensed as a nation we are wrenching children from their parents and treating peop people seeking asylum as criminals. isn't that the real problem. >> yes. that's what she was talking about, this policy of the new cruelty. had she not used that word maybe we would be talking about that. this is where you undermine, you blow yourself up, you make yourself less persuasive. >> yeah. >> again, comedians first of all should be funny. if she wants to be an activist she should try to actually advance the cause rather than provide this kind of a

distraction for the cause. the trump administration of course has seized upon this, that we are not talking about why did the president of the united states, why did the major network promote someone who, a vile racist like roseanne barr. and by the way, this was completely predictable. instead of that we are talking about the what aboutism. and that's self-inflicted. >> you know, i have got to say the samantha bee word blew that immigration story out of my rundown the other day. so don't worry, we are going to be talking about it. we are getting it back in. i promise. it's important. charlie sykes, eric digins, thanks very much. ahead. lordy, there are tapes. the michael cohen phone recordings that are getting some serious attention. uncompromising protection... advanced connectivity... and one more thing...

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text summer17 to 500500 to start listening today. welcome back. tonight in meet int mid terms, california govern tourial candidate may get his dream opponent in the general election. >> a republican would be ideal in the general election. >> i was going to say -- why do you want to face -- >> i just said it. i will be honest about it. >> careful what you wish for. >> either one of these will do. >> that line got a laugh in the debate chuck was moderating. i don't know if you could hear his voice there. but knewsome was not joking. in california, the top two vote getters regardless of party affiliation move on to the general election. knew some wants to run against a

republican rather than the mayor of los angeles, the other big democrat in the race. even though some are worried that a republican on the ballot could increase gop turn out. with the primary days away. a new poll has republican john cox with a seven point lead for second place over via re goesa. cox's rise in the polls could be the results of consolidation in the republican vote. that poll was taken after president trump gave his full endorsement to cox. so we are going to be watching on tuesday to see what happens. and we are back with more "mtp daily" after this. i have type 2 diabetes. i'm trying to manage my a1c, then i learn type 2 diabetes puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. can one medicine help treat both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk? i asked my doctor. she told me about non-insulin victoza®.

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decreased appetite, indigestion, and constipation. side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. change the course of your treatment. ask your doctor about victoza®. one picky customer shouldn't take all your time. need something printed? the business advisors at office depot can assist with exactly what your business needs to grow. get your coupon for 20% off services, technology and more at office depot and officedepot.com. welcome back. time now for "the lid." the panel back. kate listen huey burns.

jonathan alter, susan del percio. michael cohen is back this the news for the tactics he used as donald trump as fixer. listen to how he spoke to a reporter who was doing a story on a trump pieiography which a deposition from ivana trump, donald's first wife, saying donald trump had raped her, which donald has denied. >> so i'm warning you, tread very [ bleep ] lightly because what i'm going to do to you is going to be [ bleep ] disgusting. do you understand me? >> what does it say about the way donald trump operated? >> like the mafia. the only question is if it's more like the sopranos or the godfather. i tend to be on the corleone side of the argument, because it's not just thuggish, it's stupid. >> the campaign reached out for comment and they sent him michael cohen. this, i think, shows that michael cohen was playing the

fixer role, not the legal role, and i think that's really important in the context in which we're going to be thinking and learning things about cohen with the mess that he's involved in. >> like a $130,000 hush payment in which stormy daniels said she was pressured into -- >> this happened before the election, because tim mack was my colleague at "the daily beast" and we had at transcript of that. nobody cared. it was reported endlessly that not only do the trumpsters sound like the mafia, they were in business with the mafia. nobody cared. >> there is this myth that's going around social media now that we never reported any of these things about donald trump, and it's like, did you turn on the television? we reported about this stuff every single day. you might have cared but there was a good chung of the public, enough of them to get them into the oval office that did not care. >> at the end of the day, it's from being with president trump. anthony scaramucci had the same

problem. he got fired for conducting an interview. >> we were going to talk about roseanne barr and samantha bee, but i think we need to talk about immigration. families are being torn apart at the border. they say this is a law, it's policy. what do you do if you're seeking asylum and we're going to take your kids away? >> it's illegal because asylum seekers have not broken the law. under federal law, they are entitled to a process to determine whether their application for asylum is legitimate or not. they are being prevented from having that process, then separated cruelly from their children in defiance of everything that we stand for as americans, everything about the statue of liberty and what we're supposed to be. but it's very important to understand that even though there were some abuses in the

obama administration, which is what the what-aboutism types are always saying, that was a different situation. that was not dealing with these asylum seekers and short circuiting the due process that they're entitled to under the law. >> is this what republicans stand for? >> some republicans apparently, but not all republicans. and i think what would be really interesting is if there weren't other things kind of covering up this story, if you will, now. whether it's north korea or rosean roseanne, whoever. this was a story with a visual that really just could have worked to have hit donald trump in a different kind of way. this is a story that really started off with legs and i thought was going to have a really big impact. >> it still has legs. we're going to still report on this. >> i have no doubt that you'll still report on it, i just don't know in the scheme of things how much oxygen it will get within the public. >> which is really interesting, because we talk a lot, or people perceive the white house to be in this chaotic state.

but when you look at things like immigration policy, it's incredibly important and tangible and actual things are happening in terms of this administration putting things forward in terms of policy. so, you know, if you are running for office, these are the kinds of things you might highlight, right? not to say that this isn't a constant state of chaos, but that this is an administration that's doing stuff and doing stuff like this. >> and real quickly, there are a group of republicans, moderate republicans, who are fighting back, who are angry, and who are fighting back and may side with the democrats to get something done. >> that is very true. i said rosie o'donnell earlier, i meant roseanne barr. donald trump called rosie o'donnell a fat pig, let's not forget that. my apologies no rosie o'donnell for looping her into this conversation inadvertently. guys, thank you very much.

let's pay homage to sarcasm. the trolly awards are back. >> they came to us because of their own strength. a free press. >> the essence of communication must be that our failures as well as our successes will be broadcast around the world. >> when people are given the chance, they inevitably will choose a free press. >> it gives voice to the voiceless, exposes injustice. >> i consider the media to be indi indispensable to democracy.

in case you missed it. it's time again for our celebration of snark, our tribute to testy treats. the "mtp daily" trolly awards. the trolly awards committee certainly had a bounty of riches this week. there was this epic one

doctoring up the trump-kim summit coin to an entirely different kim. and responding to roseanne barr, racism is not a side effect of any sanofi -- sanofi -- i can't say it -- medication. hope they make a cream for that burn. hey, not anybody can get a tr l trolly, it's an honor just to be nominated. and trolly two, arnold schwarzenegger. trump administration officials are making plans to order grid operators to buy electricity from struggling coal and nuclear plants. schwarzenegger's response, i eagerly await the

administration's regulations protecting pagers, fax machines and blockbuster. >> blockbusters are not obsolete yet. there are six in alaska. yep, i think there is no question, governor, you will be returning. that's all for tonight. i'll be back monday with more "mtp daily." don't forget, if it's sunday it's "meet the press" on your local nbc station. i'll be there. "the beat with ari melber" starts right now. ari, i want to go home. it's friday. >> katie, i couldn't help but notice you said, i'll be back, not get with the chopper. >> get with the chopper! >> you just did a full arnold impersonation. >>