so where ever you go. we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. don't live life without it. welcome to "politics nation." kim kardashian walked into the white house this week to speak with president trump about prison reform and to seek his pardon for alice marie johnson, a 62-year-old black woman serving a federal life sentence without parole for first-time non-violent drug offense. less than 24 hours after kardashian's meeting with trump, the president pardoned, probably

instead, conservative pundit denish d'souza, a conservative known for, among other things, posting racist tweets about president obama. trump later hinted he is considering two more pardons for style icon martha stewart and former illinois governor rod blagojevich. notice a pattern? now, kim kardashian, just like her husband, in my opinion, was played by the president as one "daily beast" column has wrote it. used. gets the optics of meeting open. i'm talking about criminal justice reform. and doesn't pardon or even mention in a tweet or anything else the two blacks that miss kardashian or mrs. kardashian west came in for. and then pardons a man known for

racist tweets. that's the criminal justice policies this administration seems to consistently give us. turning me now to political consultants, democratic julie rajinsky and republican michael singleton. let me go to you, mr. singleton. >> uh-huh. >> kim kardashian goes in, headlines everywhere. he's talking with kim kardashian about criminal justice reform. she wants pardons for two blacks. she got nothing. in fact, d'souza, who called president obama a boy and a grown-up trevant is given a pardon for what he himself was

guilty of doing. criminal justice of trump, or is that an overstatement, in your opinion? >> as it specifically relates to article 2, section 2 of the constitution which grants the president power, the president has, for the most part, freedom to dictate who he's going to pardon. >> that's not the question. i don't want to go into the history of constitutional power, the question i'm raising is, under this administration, an appeal from someone he promoted as a big star to have a conversation, makes the direct appeal, and he answers it by giving them nothing and giving someone the opposite. >> according to the constitution, your question within itself is flawed, and i'll tell you why. the president, again, has the right to pardon whomever he wants, whether i like it or not, whether you like it or not. >> i'm talking about how he uses -- excuse me, sir.

>> again, that is his right according to the constitution. it's pretty clear on that. the constitution is pretty clear on that, reverend sharpton. >> obviously he wants to duck through some -- we're not going there. we have our grown folks pants on on this show. >> okay. >> we're talking not about the constitution, about the power of the president with his choice. tell me how he uses his choice. >> the two people kim kardashian spoke to him about have nothing to do with who he pardoned, the michael flynns of the world, the people who might go against him. >> how do you know that? >> let me finish. i did not interrupt you. the people he pardoned are things that michael flynn got in trouble for, that paul manafort got in trouble for.

he's clearly trying to send a message -- >> nobody interrupted you. please refrain from that. >> the message he's trying to send to the people is the message he's sending through these pardons. unfortunately the woman that kim kardashian west spoke to him about has nothing to do with that. drug offenses have nothing to do with the problems he's facing as president of the united states. >> what's interesting is president obama commuted the sentences of low-level non-drug offenders like the 62-year-old grandmother that kim kardashian came to trump on. >> exactly right. >> president obama had pardoned more than the 11 preceding presidents combined. so this is a complete reversal of policy. >> look, we are pardoning or talking about pardoning in this administration celebrities, people who got -- went to places like camp cupcake like martha stewart did. i'm not suggesting she doesn't

merit a pardon eventually, she might. but it's interesting that the pattern with which he's established these pardons has everything to do with sending a message to the people who are against him. >> you cannot make an overreaching assumption about his state of mind. that's not based off of fact, that's an opinion. come on. >> the question actually was whether it was an overstatement, then you started giving me a lesson -- >> exactly, because you -- >> wait a minute, wait a minute. >> go ahead. >> you started giving me a lesson on the constitution. we don't have to insult each other. let's go with how he makes the choice. you're saying it's an overassumption. give me an example where president trump did not operate sending these signals since you feel that is an overstatement. give me an example that would argue against that. >> i have no evidence whatsoever

to be able to make the assumption on how he's making these decisions to give pardons. >> but if she's given a pattern that all fits the same, you have no evidence to give on the contrary. is that not so? >> now we're arguing with semantics here. that's a dubious question, of course it's semantics. >> sir, we're talking about obvious pardons. it's not semantics. >> it absolutely is semantics because you're attempting to start an argument based on, again, your assumptions. >> the whole twitter fit the president had yesterday from there's no collusion to the trade war and all of that, we are really looking at now a memo that came out in this morning's "new york times" that has the president's counsel saying, in effect, that maybe he did write the letter that was in dispute

here about whether or not it was leading to misleading the special counsel on the question of what transpired in the infamous meeting in trump towers. there is even now the raising of the question of whether or not he could have struck justice because he controlled the justice department. almost saying he can't obstruct justice, he is justice, which many of us would argue that is not what he is or any president is. >> it's a very louis xiv interpretation of who the state is, and in this case he is the state, that he can't obstruct justice. he is the president and the president is the law, which we know from nixon on down is not the case. but the biggest breaking news to me that we saw was not the legal gymnastics his team jumped through, it's the fact that he finally conceded that he did write that letter about the

meeting that donald trump jr. had in trump tower, that he did concoct the statement about that. that is an obstruction of justice charge. that is him stepping in and doing something about his son that might have had something to do with his son and his administration went to russia and had the meeting where donald trump jr. said, if you have that, i love it, quote, unquote. i'm not a lawyer, but from lawyers i've spoken to and others, presents a legal challenge for him going into that obstruction charge in which richard nixon was impeached, or was about to get impeached. that was one of the charges against president clinton. this is not new. >> obstruction is a problem. >> it is a huge problem for him and that's the breaking news for me in that pattern. >> let me ask you very calmly, do you think that the fact that the president, now according to this letter from his counsel,

did participate in writing the letter that it presents a problem for him? >> it absolutely presents a problem, and i read through the 20 pages. it seems pretty ridiculous to me that his attorneys are attempting to argue that the president is somehow above the law, yet the president is sworn to uphold the constitution. i'm not sure if those two things are aligned, right? remember, this is the president that has argued, for the most part, about the rule of law and justice and how important and essentially critical those things are to who we are as a society, yet his attorneys are now somehow arguing, yeah, that's okay for everybody else except for the president. i think the constitution is pretty clear that no one in this country, regardless of your race, your socio-economic status is above the law, and that also includes the president of the united states. if you look at the patterns, reverend sharpton, i think the president continues to get himself in trouble by his statements. when you lie, and months later

it is proven that you lied, i do think, as the previous guest mentioned, it does lead into folks making the case that perhaps there was some intent to obstruct justice. with midterms coming up, i think that is a distraction republicans just do not want to deal with coming into november. >> i knew if you stayed still long enough, you would calm down and make sense to me. thank you, julie, thank you, michael. >> i have a lot of respect for you, reverend sharpton, i really do. >> it doesn't matter, but i like you, anyway. coming up, will 2018 be the year where women, many of color, decide the fate of the midterm election? the answer in just a moment. touch-sensitivity... ♪ uncompromising protection...

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earlier this week we reached a milestone in america. 42 women currently are running for u.s. senate in this year's midterm election, a record. they join the record number of women that have filed to run for u.s. house or a governorship, most of them democrats and many of color. and georgia gubernatorial candidate stacy abrams has emerged as the face of that

wave. her resounding victory in last week's primary putting her within striking distance of becoming the first black woman governor in american history. joining me now is stacy abrams, democratic nominee for governor of georgia and author of "minority leader: how to lead from the outside and make real change." thank you for being with me this morning, stacy abrams. let me ask you s, first of all, you've now become the face of this surge of women candidates, women of color and women, period, that are running this year. what does it mean for americans, for people, for people all over the country and georgians that we have more women in seats of power? >> well, first of all, thank you

so much for having me this morning. i think what it means is that we're changing what the face of leadership looks like. but more than that, we're bringing to the table the experiences that each of us has and how that can inform hform h live better lives mich. my campaign is focused on creating a diverse and thriving community for everyone and making sure america does its job for every person. we're finding that from women who run in georgia and i will ili -- i'llinois to idaho can help see every person thrive. >> you did my radio show, and we are seeing an article that i think was in "politico" that said the dnc ought to use stacey

abrams' model. what was the model that helped you win in the primary and what do you think women need? we hear a lot of people say they feel they're not getting support from the dnc and they are not putting the resources on the ground. so are they using the abrams model? are you pleased with the model you're seeing around the country and what do you think about the criticism? >> i would be focused on my race and here's why. we are running a people campaign that we began by talking to voters. i think that's the model we really have to focus on. we know in years past there's been an inordinate amount of money spent to try to convince republican voters to vote democratic instead of getting independent thinking voters to get them to turn out. our focus is on making sure that

every person who has a vested interest in our state's progress, in our country's progress, that they feel their voices are valued. and i think that's a model we're starting to see played out more and more across this country. i think the dnc can consistently invest more. i think that's always an important thing. but i think the most important narrative is that we have to invest in our people. we have to invest in the people who will be casting these votes, and they need to know that their voices are valued. and that's really the model that we focused on. we did more groundwork, we did phone calls, door knocking, texting, meeting people where they are. in fact, one of the people we met was a woman named pam in macon, georgia who wanted someone to invest in her. she is someone raising two daughters, is taking care of her grandchild now, but no one ever asked her what she wanted. she wants to create a daycare center in her community but didn't believe anyone would invest in her. i think what the dnc has to do, what candidates have to do, what

america has to do is invest in pam, inc. how do we help every person have the best opportunity to prosper? that's what we really want and that's what my campaign is grounded in. >> that's part of what really got me about your campaign. as you know, there is an atlanta action organized, and a white rural male was talking to me one day. we stopped on the way to augusta somewhere on i-20. and he says, you know, i'm voting for stacey abrams because i think she gets me, which was stunning to me. he was, of course, inferring that i didn't get him but i wasn't running for governor. how you make people feel like no matter who they are, you get them. >> look, in the book i wrote, "minority leader," i talk about my personal struggles with issues of debt, talking about how do we deal with the fears of trying to do something that no

one that looks like you has done before. what i want people to understand is that i intend to be the governor of every georgian, whether that's somebody in the far northwest part of the state or in doeastern georgia. we have to expand medicaid so people can take care of their families so no one has to worry about paying their health care bills or paying their rent. those are real table issues, and i intend to be the governor that talks about them, not so i can be elected but so people come out and vote so i can be the next governor. i think that model works. >> we talked about women running and women of color, but there is also a record number of white supremacists running. as you campaigned around georgia that has an you go repugly hist you come across white supremacist confrontations or any signs of that, or do you think that's just in select

places where you have announced white supremacists, more than we've had in history who would say that they were? >> i think we're always going to find the most negative parts of humanity trying to run for office, trying to have their voices heard. i'm worried about the benign voices, the people who don't bother to speak up, or when they do speak up, they're horrific and mean-spirited. the focus on basically taking away rights from the lgbtq community, those are challenges we need to pay very special focus to. you have these people, the white supremacists, who hold themselves up and, i think, speak to the worst part of our nature, but we should be equally worried as those who don't sound as bad but would send our state in the wrong direction. georgia is moving forward as a state that people want to live in, people want to do business

in. but you cannot do business in a state where people do not respect you, and that's why i think it's critical that georgia has a leader to respects the lgbtq community, respects that you live here, whether you're rural or suburban georgia, and wants you to have the opportunity to prosper. that's the kind of campaign i'm running and that's the kind of governor i want to be. >> thank you, stacey abrams. i'm sure we'll be talking more with you. >> thank you, reverend sharpton. up next, i talk to a company that wants to conduct racial bias training for its employees, all of that while this country is facing one racially charged crisis after another. be right back. [ doorbell rings ] janice, mom told me you bought a house.

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if you have severe pain in your stomach area. tell your doctor your medical history. gallbladder problems have happened in some people. tell your doctor right away if you get symptoms. taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, 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®. i support the affordable care act, and voted against all trump's attempts to repeal it. but we need to do more. i believe in universal health care. in a public health option to compete with private insurance companies. and expanding medicare to everyone over 55. and i believe medicare must be empowered to negotiate the price of drugs. california values senator dianne feinstein to negotiate the price of drugs. ithe race for governort. has turned into a scam.

gavin newsom's trying to elect a republican who was endorsed by trump. and villaraigosa's being bankrolled by a handful of billionaires. it's everything that's wrong with politics. and none of it is helping struggling families. here's my pledge to you. i'll keep our budget balanced. invest in affordable housing. fight for universal healthcare. and stand up to donald trump. as governor, you can trust me to do what's right- because i always have. i spoke to ceo of starbuck's kevin johnson last week after they had their internal training last week, coming after two black men were controversially arrested at a philadelphia starbuck's store and coinciding with an msnbc special on race in

america that i participated in with my colleagues joy reed and chris hayes. i was heartened that johnson went beyond canned corporate damage control and that he had nuanced takes on improving race relations in america and the place of corporations in that struggle. here's more of my interview with starbuck's ceo kevin johnson. let me ask this. the responsibility of the corporate community, obviously starbuck's is taking a stand that could be a model because i don't see a lot of companies even acknowledge bias and racism. what is the corporate citizen's responsibility to deal with this? how do they stand up and become responsible to this issue of racism? >> well, i'll just share kind of my own journey and perspective on this. personally, i would acknowledge that this happens in america.

race and racial bias is something that america has been dealing with for centuries. yet i think it was too easy to be on the sidelines and say someone else needs to do something about it. it's now personal for me to take the action to do the right things for my starbuck's partners and do the right things for starbuck's. so by doing this, i have a goal to ensure that we get this right for starbuck' on this journey, and if we do it right, my aspiration is that others can embrace some of the things that we have learned and that we are willing to share with everyone and perhaps make it easier for them to embrace something and start to get off the sidelines and get involved in a constructive way. >> people don't understand that when you are black in america and at a different level, women, you actually have to get up in the morning and get yourself geared up for a different environment. you're going to be looked upon as a suspect rather than a

customer and collisions are going to happen until we deal with the root cause of where all of us come from, which is a culture of race-based prejudices and presumptions. >> that's one of the learnings that we've woven into this, is the term racial anxiety and how that affects different people and different races in different ways. being able to have those conversations and being able to listen for understanding and start to understand how other people, people that have differences, can better interact in a more comfortable way, in a more transparent way, in a more understanding way, that starts to bring noticthose barriers dod create a different way for people to connect. >> we're also going to have to collectively, then, give government and law enforcement other ways to deal with it, because you and i could have a perfect understanding of two or

three hours long, but other people have to get involved, and i think corpore america has to stand up and become active partners in this, and maybe this can be a spark to start that. it's one day, but it could be an important day. >> this is a journey and certainly this is one step in the journey and there will be many more. certainly acknowledging this is a long road, but the only way to make progress is just to go a step at a time and have the courage to continue and the courage to make it a priority and the courage to tackle difficult, sensitive topics. >> my thanks again to starbuck's ceo kevin johnson. coming up, another week of racial crisis involving an american brand. what connects comedian roseanne barr and president trump? other than bad taste. more on that, when we come back.

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tone does start at the top. we like to look up to our president and feel as though he reflects the values of our country, but i also think every individual citizen has a responsibility, too. it's up to all of us to push back. our government is only going to be as good as we make it be. as reverend alden always taught

me, you have to push hard and people have to listen. >> that was valerie jarrett, connecting the dots between the grossness of the white house and the cultural grossness incited by it, demonstrated this week by comedian rosanne barr's tweets about race. she compared jarrett to an ape and a terrorist. the abc network canned barr's highly successful pro-trump reboot of her '90s sitcom. i found the synergy striking. on the same day that starbuck's was correcting itself, another brand was controlling a crisis

of its own, a theme that has dominated the race cycle for the questions it raises around race and corporate responsibility. joining me now is myra gaye, editorial board member and opinion writer for the "new york times," and kirsten john, and tim weiss, anti-racism activist and author of "white like me: reflexes r reflections on race from a privileged son." let me set it up this way. tim, you were part of a conversation we had on race tuesday night in philadelphia, and you talked about white privilege. as a white, i'm sure you get a lot of backlash on that. but we are still dealing in a nation where white privilege is a reality. >> right. and i think it's important to note that when i talk about white privilege, i'm not

suggesting that all white people are wealthy or powerful or rich or have material success. when i talk about white privilege, i mean the general day-to-day advantages that generally come from being a member of the dominant group, just like able-bodied privilege or money privilege, class privilege. one of the biggest privileges, and what i was trying to speak to the other night on the special, is the privilege when you're white of not really having to think about your racial identity on a day-to-day basis the way that people of color do, particularly with regard to their interactions with police, their interactions with store owners, their interactions with teachers in the classroom with people of color knowing their racial identities often gives off clues of suspiciousness and competence, and being white taking for granted that we presume to belong in whatever cycle we find itself.

it's a psychological day-to-day edge that they have, and we have to understand because it's a burden when you don't have that edge. >> it doesn't mean accusing all whites of being racist, it means this is the way the cultural and social landscape is, and you have the advantage you didn't even necessarily ask for, but you have it if you're white. so if we realize how do we deal with it and correct it rather than everybody getting defensive about it. >> that's right, it's about honor and advantages. so if you have an honor and advantage, by definition someone else is unfairly disadvantaged. it's not about individual histories, it's not something that people individually are to blame for, but it is something that individuals are responsible for confronting. and i think that the biggest challenge is in getting the defensive is walls to kind of come down and to have a

conversation so people don't have attacked, but we can have an honest conversation about race with the goal of overcoming the history we have in this country. if you think about racism as a sickness, as a national sickness, i think that helps because i think, first of all, it's very honest, but i also think that it allows us to say that it's not about good people or bad people, right? the country has inherited something, and it's a sickness and it's toxic, so how do we all work together to overcome it? >> i wanted you on because right away, you and the region informed me, when i was on my way to philly, that you were going to d.c. to protest around what roseanne had said. why was it important to you to gear up and to really respond to this? because a lot of people get the idea that we -- not only me but

other groups, are sitting around waiting for a crisis. what is the reason you respond to these things? what does it mean to you and a lot of young people? yo generation behind me, even though i look younger. >> you gave me these grays. you and i have often talked about this. we are in a time of racial and gender reckoning in america. it's important for us to affirm our humanity, but it's also important for us to stand around those who have led, those who have put themselves out on the front lines like valerie jarrett, like susan rice, like others from our community that make us proud, that have been projecting a different part of black america to the world, a more positive perspective and view of who we are, so it's important for us to stand up and rally around and protect those who have stood up for us and given us a new image around the

world. valerie jarrett has done tremendous things along with president obama to turn this nation around. if we sit back and allow someone like that, someone like susan rice, someone like the first lady to just be insulted and dehumanized in silence, then we become part of the problem. >> tim, i think a lot of people don't understand what the minister just said. the deep pain that many feel. when you can compare valerie jarrett, a well-trained -- you couldn't get a more refined american -- to an ape is saying to all of our kids, no matter what you do, you're not going to be anything. i don't think people understand how painful that is. that's a lot deeper than, oh, they're just running out, they're looking for a camera. this hurts. >> and also we have to keep in mind the historical context. in the wake of the comments about valerie jarrett, a lot of

defenders of roseanne will make a false equivalence and say, people call donald trump an orangutan. there is a difference between comparing black people to monkeys. there is no such troup ere regarding white men. it is not a racial attack. it does not strike a historical nerve that is not directly aimed at the entire community. we have to put these things in the proper context. there is a history on one side and not on the other, and it's something we have to address when people make those kind of statements. >> a lot of us have said things through the years that we should not have said and apologized for. that goes without saying. but at the same time, i think you have to look at patterns and what people do. and i think that their actions

will tell whether or not they really did not represent themselves properly in certain statements. roseanne's career is built on this kind of stuff, which she still has the right to do. but when you have on publicly regulated networks people that would get those platforms, they should use them more responsibly. and even if they did in the past, they must be very careful. isn't that kind of the way the "new york times" of the world have to kind of look like this evenly when he raises about those who have called the president out? i admit in my youth i used to call people names, including blacks, and i learned that that is not really -- mrs. corretta scott king used to tell me, that is not who you are and quit acting like that, because i used to work with her son. you have to prove all of that,

but you have to base that on the length of your career and where you're going, but also the platforms you're on. she's on a major network regulated by the federal government and given advertising. it's different than somebody standing in a comedy hall. >> the context matters, i agree with that, but i also think we just can't have these conversations without the historical context as well. and i think something that's very interesting that's going on is that while the white house seems to be filled at times, it feels like, with white supremacists or white supremacy, we're seeing in other parts of society a change, and i think you touched on that. it's a good one. there are real conversations happening, real movement on race in the entertainment world. if you look at what happened to roseanne, that's accountability. that's the right move. starbuck's, the business world. sports, the conversation around nfl and colin kaepernick. so i guess what i'm saying is,

the rest of society is moving forward. and you know what? that conversation, i think, started in some ways with barack obama, and i think there were a lot of people that were extremely disappointed with the outcome of the 2016 election, and in fact were even more motivated by what they saw with the president calling mexicans rapists, who made a false equivalency after charlottesville. so people who believe in this vision of what the country can be or hasn't been, we're even more motivated now. >> let's keep talking about this. our guests are going to stick around. more coming up on racial tensions in trump's america. and a quick note. tonight on msnbc, a look at robert f. kennedy almost 50 years after his assassination. how his message of unifying a divided nation remains just as

relevant today. watch "headliners," robert f. kennedy. tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. we'll be right back. dvisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. ♪ most people come to la with big dreams.

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the weekend race that was. let's look at the new nbc poll numbers. 64% of americans think racism remains a major problem. 45% think race issues are getting worse. and 45% of americans think racism is getting little attention. minister, how do you respond to that? almost two-thirds of americans still think racism is a problem, even split on those that think it's getting better, others thinking it's not getting enough attention. you are on the front lines, you are in the trenches all over the region, all over the country. you mostly stay in your region. how do you respond to that? >> i think those numbers have to be skewed by the fact that if you benefit from white

privilege, you are never going to see race as a problem. you are going to always have some barrier between your experiences and the experience of others who are not of the dominant group. but i think that it's clear america is awake to the fact that we are not one. and the trump administration and this presidency has really exacerbated issues that have been long contended with and debated. as you said, the obama era brought one kind of discussion about race. the trump era has taken it and juiced it up. and now we are at a hyper speed and a hyper pace when it comes to race. everything from the nfl to police accountability to now comedians. >> across the board. how do you view those numbers? >> i think it's interesting,

because i do feel as though the trump administration has metastasized something that was already very much there. and i actually think it's a sign of progress that most americans understand that racism is an actual problem. and i think what has helped that understanding is i think more and more people are seeing that not only is racism toxic to black people, it's toxic to all of us. and i don't want to misstate this, because black people, minorities, have suffered greatly, of course, in the history of this country and continue to in many ways because of racism. but, again, if you think about it as a national sickness, to the extent where if you look, the president is able to use -- i was a politics reporter for many years. it's very clear the president and his administration will turn to racism as a tool, a political tool for distraction to divide.

so i think people see that and they understand. >> tim, let me go to you quickly. your reaction. we have less than a minute. i want your reaction. >> sure. the numbers are interesting. let's remember, white america by and large has never really seen racism as a problem at the time. we might do it 50 years later. but at the time. in the early '60s, polls found that two out of three or more white americans thought black folks were already treated equally. that was before the civil rights laws were even on the books. so my concern is that until white america is willing to acknowledge that black and brown folks know their lives better than we do and have always known their lives better than we do and learn to listen to those stories that are behind the numbers, we're not going to make the kind of progress we need to make. >> i've been trying to say that a long time, tim. i don't say it as well as you. >> thank you. >> are you preaching anywhere? i may come. thank you. up next, my final thoughts.

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like many people around the world, i was heartened when i saw the royal wedding. i took note of here was a person of color that would now become a part of the royal family. but even as we see the cultural shifts away from white supremacy, that does not mean that it's over.

it only means that we are changing slightly the picture. i leave tomorrow for england. i'm going to spend three days speaking at oxford union and meeting with members of parliament, because there is a real push around white nationalism in england. there's the windrush generation. at the same time they welcome in this person of color to the royal family, they are pushing out, deporting people into the caribbean. it reminds me of some of the same kind of language and xenophobia in the white house today. it's a global problem. those that are trying to hold on to the remnants of a world that has changed, that has become browner and blacker and we need to learn how to live together as dr. king said rather than die apart. as fools.

it's a global problem. i will let you know about my trip next week. that does it for me. thanks for watching. now to my colleague. >> safe travels. i should say, get right back here and do the continual preaching we do. we have eight candidates on state and local ballots in this country who identify as white nationalists right now. go to eng lland and come on hom. good morning. it's 9:00 a.m. here in the east. here is what's happening right now. absolute power revealed for the first time a secret memo from the president's lawyers to robert mueller suggests he can stop the russia investigation whenever he wants and for whatever reason. we break it down this hour. pardon fallout. new questions today on who might be next on the president's list and whether any of it crosses a line if not legally but politically.