my thanks to some of my post favorite friends. and what you did yesterday probably gave rise to the as per races of dozens and dozens of young people. thank you that does it for us. m tch"mtp daily" starts right n with katy tur in for chuck. >> you can send jonathan over me, i want to give him a high five. >> he's coming. >> good. thank you. and if it is tuesday, could the cleanup get any messier? tonight the walk backe. >> russians attempted to interfere in our elections. >> the president reverses course after facing a world of criticism after his putin summit. >> i just wanted to clear up, i have the strongest respect for our intelligence agencies headed by my people. >> and plus believe it or not.

will the reversal fix the damage? >> it is 24 hours too late and in the wrong place. >> and later, lights out. >> whoops, they just turned off the lights. that must be intelligence agents. >> this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. good evening. i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. and welcome to "mtp daily." yesterday the president of the united states, the person tasked with defending our democracy, sided with the russian leader who ordered his military to hack our democratic elections. today trump says that we got it all wrong. that the whole uproar is basically the result of one wrong word. the president's performance yesterday sparked waves upon

waves of bipartisan criticism from congress, from the intelligence community, from newspaper editorials, from national security officials, from the media. and even from some folks at fox news. here is what the president said yesterday followed by what he is now claiming he meant to say. >> my people came to me, dan coats came to me, and some others, they said they think it is russia. i have president putin, he said it is not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. i said the word would instead of wouldn't. and the sentence should have been, and i thought it would be maybe a little bit unclear on the transcript or unclear on the actual video, the sentence should have been i don't see any reason why it wouldn't be russia. sort of a double negative. i think that probably clarifies things pretty good-b by itself. >> yeah, sure, it does totally.

guys, this is one of those times where the president's denial about what he said all but confirms what he said. the president gave an interview with fox after the putin summit and he did not try to correct what he said. the president tweeted nearly ten times after the pew summit and he didn't try to correct what he said. the white house distributed talking points about the summit today which nbc news obtained and they didn't try to correct what he said. the director of national intelligence put out a statement in response to the president's comments at the summit. and he didn't try to correct what mr. trump said. guys, if the president's advisors thought he misspoke, why wouldn't it take 27 hours someone to tell us? if the president actually misspoke, why is he incapable of telling us without reading directly from a written statement that was likely written for him. and why is he incapable of actually sticking to the script.

>> i accept our intelligence community 's conclusion that russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place. could be other people also. a lot of people out there. >> so in telling us that he misspoke when he questioned the u.s. intelligence on russian meddling, president trump is questioning the intelligence on russian meddling. nowhere do the u.s. intelligence reports on russian meddling or bob mueller's indictments for that matter say there are a lot of people out there who could have done the hacking. also if the presidents in to, why is he mum about the other times at yesterday's press conference that he sided with putin, blamed the fbi, blamed the victims of russia's attacks, called the russia probe a disaster and spewed conspiracy theories about the russia investigation? do you believe monday trump that

sides with putin repeatedly as the u.s. intelligence community warns of more russia meddling in our democracy? or do you believe tuesday trump who says don't listen to monday trump? >> we're doing everything in our power to prevent russian interference in 2018. we're going to take strong action to secure our election systems in the process. >> begs the question, what is wednesday trump going to be like. let's bring in tonight's panel. national political politics reporter at the "new york times," an msnbc political analyst and republican strategist, and also an msnbc contributor and principeton university professor. did the president just pee on our leg and tell us that it is rain something. >> that is one way of putting it. but what will trump say tomorrow

in sn this h ? he said something, he tried to clean it up. he got mad he had to clean it up and then he messed it up again. so i suspect that there will be a wednesday trump. i think there is something to consider. yes, we've heard a lot of theories does he have -- does putin have something on him or not, but i think that he is actually just continuing trying to muddy the water with the mueller investigation. and we know from the polling he has definitely hurt mueller's credibili credibility. what is he is trying to build up putin's credibility among his base? i think he is afraid mueller will come out very soon with information about his family about that. >> so he is trying to inoculate himself and saying working with vladimir putin is not so bad, it is okay? >> i think so. because i think that has been part of his strategy all along. i don't think it will work, but i think that donald trump is not that thoughtful or insightful. he just does what is good for him.

what is the jund lunderlying pu for everything he's done since being in office? whatever is good for him. no other agenda. >> and he also said that it could be other people. i believe our intelligence community, but it also could be other people. nowhere in our intelligence reports or in the mueller indictment as we laid out does it talk about other people. everybody is pointing the finger directly at russia. >> exactly. and ib this is think this is i. donald trump has been all over the board, but on this one he has been fairly consistent. every time there has been a moment where he is giving his own analysis, a moment where he is off a prepared script, he has parroted those lines that have spoken against what our intelligence community has already said. and when he has those moments of candor, he always goes back to the same thing, he always goes back to it could be someone else, which is evidence that is not supported, in bringing up things like the dnc servers and the like which aren't supported by evidence. so this is a president who while

there has been times where he has seemed scatter brained, when it seems like he is uninformed, on this issue he stands alone, but he is consistent. so that should add to the level of questions that surrounds this because with all the criticism, with all the eyes on yesterday, he still cannot muster any type of courage to indict vladimir putin when he was given the specific opportunity. and that is not going to change whether he has a moment of reading off a script. >> and it wasn't just a softball, it was a ball on a tee that key hit out of the park. just walk up and swing the bat and hit it out of the park and he completely whiffed. and today just like after charlottesville, he read off prepared -- off a prepared at the same time. and he still didn't stay to the script. he had to read what he meant to say off prepared remarks. >> so two things that handed to me as i was listening to this. so on the one hand, reading the

prepared remarks led me to conclude that donald trump and the people around him have a breadth taking disregard for the intelligence of the american people. that they would think that we would believe that. >> the people around him? >> has to be. donald trump helped write it. >> there is an emergency meeting that happened today at the white house. for all the principles. apparently to address what happened yesterday. >> i think it is important to really insist that this is not just trump. that the problem we're facing in our could you be isn't just trump. you can't say lindsey graham's tweet donald trump didn't appreciate the moment. senator mcconnell's response, we want russia to know that the senate cares. but he didn't name trump. we see some folks coming out strong, but michael chertoff yesterday, former secretary under bush, soft pedaling. it is not just simply trump. but then there is something else, the second point that i came up with as i was listening

to this, donald trump had to say what said in order to protect his base. this is what i mean. donald trump looked weak to whom? he looked weak to us. he betrayed the country to us. but he can't look weak to those folks who will stand by him for whatever reason. >> this morning he looked like he was getting tossed around. >> so he had to come out and say to them, look, i should have said "wouldn't." but i slip ped up and said "would." and i think they might buy it. >> listen to marco rubio and how he responded. >> i'm just glad he clarified it. i can't read his intentions or what he meant to say at the time. suffice to say for me as a policymak policymaker, what matters is what we do moving forward. >> he says he clarified it, but let's be real here.

you would have had to have been wearing a blind fold and had ear plugs in your ears in order to believe that was enough to clarify or walk back what happened in that news conference yesterday. the entire news conference was him siding with vladimir putin and throwing out conspiracy theories and calling the entire investigation a witch hunt, not to mention the interview he did with hannity right afterwards where he said vladimir putin's denial was strong and powerful. >> it is absurd to think -- only in donald trump's mind does he think this could maybe work. and maybe it can work with a portion of his base. but at the end of the day, donald trump is again -- i can't say it enough -- is only worried about position. he not only yesterday did he put himself before country, he almost vie lalolaolated his oat office by putting so many people this danger by undercutting the principles of our intel team in

this country. it is absurd to say you can't trust him. if the president of the united states didn't trust our intelligence community, who will? >> i think one other point to add though is this is part of a long on running campaign by the president and those around him to discredit those in the intelligence community and the fbi. i understand the point that the excuse does not make sense today. i mean, we should be clear though that the reason marco rubio is making that statement is a political calculus that he does not believe that base is going to remove themselves from believing donald trump. and so the question that will move republicans and the congress will be if republican voters decide that this is an issue that they care about enough to pressure those lawmakers, and we are yet to see that on any of these attempts and until that becomes true, you are asking these lawmakers to take a moral calculation that they are not -- >> but there are a couple not returning after the midterm

elections. the republicans in the senate are in such a perfect -- >> that is a good point people are barely speaking out. >> but how many votes does he need for the supreme court? this -- if not for this issue, then for what? >> that is a question i asked senator flake on the show yesterday. he held up the confirmations for judges for tariffs but wouldn't do it for this. and i asked how are tariffs more important than the sanctity of our elections. there a good argument that this is more important than holding up a tariff bill and he didn't have an answer for that. >> look at the 2:00 hour today. you cut in the middle of your interview to senator mcconnell and he says -- speaks about the senate's position with regards to putin. and what do they do? they cut immediately to we're

about to appoint x number of judge, go immediately to what they -- >> bob corker was asked about this today. corker said you're going to have to ask voters. you have folks calling what the president did yesterday a betrayal, people calling it disgusting. it has given credibility to the question of what vladimir putin might have on donald trump. why would an american president go on foreign soil and side with an antagonistic leader. and not a foe of the united states, side with him over the united states. why would he do that, why are those questions being raised again. and then you have republican lawmakers basically saying it is all about poll numbers. if the polls -- if voters like it, then it is okay. >> and then they are worthless, they are not doing their jobs. and i would say that for any democrat or republican. >> i will say this, it is an empty patriotism that i find sickening. these are the same people who

will lose their minds over football -- professional football play ertsz takie football -- professional football play ertsz takirs taki over police brutality, the people who will proclaim the importance of our national defense and justify separating babies from children because of their call commitment. and here you have donald trump going over sitting right next to vladimir putin and he doesn't -- he can't muster the courage to defend the men and women who are supposedly defending our country. it is an empty kind of patriotism. >> i agree that we have to stand up for that. so maybe we have to rely on the voters. >> and the problem, it is deeper than just individual actors in congress and in d.c. it is a question of when a republican party that starts from a base and all the way up will decide that this election interference is of paramount importance. and that has not happened yet. so when you go to voters, they still think this is a witch hunt. and so until that changes, you won't see mitch mcconnell

change, you won't see marco rubio change. and that has to be the question we're asking. >> on the more serious side of things, the president had an intelligence briefing on his schedule today that was taken off for what reason i'm not sure. but we did have john brennan this morning on msnbc say that it could happen that the intelligence community decides to hold back certain information from the president in order to protect places like -- other agencies like the cia. ahead, susan eddie -- guys, sorry, stay with us. ahead, what do republicans make of president trump's clarification on his comments and the summit that has caused so much uproar. belly fat:

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welcome back. purchases a republicans are facing a problem, they were trying to figure out what to say about donald trump siding with vladimir putin than his own doj. and now president trump insists he clearly did not mean to say what he clearly said yesterday. so which president are they to believe? yesterday or today's. i'm joined now by tomorrow re r. congressman, thank you for joining us. which version do you believe? >> let's get down to the nitty-gritty and look at what the facts are showing us. clearly there is russian meddling in our election in 2016 like it has been for decades. and what we need to recognize is the distinction between meddling and collusion. i think the president made clear again today what he has said four times previously. he recognizes that there is meddling by the russians in the 2016 election. but no evidence of collusion.

and that is why it is time to get the show on the road and move this process forward to say if there is collusion, if there is meddling, what is it, get the facts out and get it behind us so we can start solving the problems of america. >> why is it so hard for the prz to consi president to consistently say that he believes in the intelligence community? even today he said it could be many other people. >> i think that there is definitely an issue of what is meddling and what is collusion. and in-i'll let the president speak to what his intention, what his mind is, but what i hear is there is a difference from the president's perspective as to what is meddling versus collusion. there is no evidence of collusion. there is evidence of meddling and what i think the president continues trying to stress is where is the evidence of cow collusion and if there is none, let's recognize the results of 2016 and move forward as a

country. >> the president has never made that distinction. do you think the president is not smart enough to make that distinction? >> no, i think he has made it clear as he did today. he recognizes that russia was trying to meddle in our election and they have been doing it for decades. >> he didn't make it clear. he was trying to correct one word. would not instead of would. and following that immediately, he said and it could have been other people as well. it could have been russia and other people. nowhere in our intelligence community's assessment has anybody named other people. and the doj indictment, mueller indictment friday, nobody named other people, they named 12 russian intelligence officers. >> let's be very clear, i think there is evidence within -- evidence has been presented to me that there has been meddling in our election not just 2016, but before by actors out of north korea, out of china, out of other areas of the world that have tried to influence the election in the way that they wanted to see --

>> this is an attempt -- this was an attempt and successful attempt to hack into the dnc. this wasn't just an influence campaign through social media. that was also there. this was a hack into the dnc. and a hack into john podesta's e-mails. >> there is amle evidence of computer hacking out of north korea, china, out of -- >> are you trying to -- >> i'm trying to say that the issue of meddling in our elections is a real threat. and it is clear that russia was part of it. that didn't mean russia is the only actor that engaged in that not only in 2016 but before. and what we should do as a cub -- country is recognize the threats to our election process and make sure they don't happen going forward. that is all i'm trying to argue and submit to the american people, why don't we solve the problem of election meddling at the root cause. >> do you think the president is aware of how it looks and how he is working against u.s. interests by standing next to vladimir putin and siding with him? >> i do have a concern,

obviously putin is no friend of america. he is an adversary, an enemy. and we should treat him as that. however, we do have to recognize that russia does have influence in the world as a super power with nuclear weapons that can influence areas like syria, iran, north korea. and if there is common interests we can find with russia, i think it is worthwhile to have that dialogue open. >> what did we come out of yesterday's meeting with? >> hopefully beginnings of that dialogue where we can identify those common interests to attack those common problems that are recognized as a threat to us. >> he's now met with putin i think this is the third time. he met with him at the g-20, he had a side meeting in asia earlier this year. and this is the third meeting. what does he come out of it with? >> my hope is that in those conversations a relationship is continuing to be solidified with an adversary, an enemy in putin

that can identify that common area. and let's be clear, we can go back to when secretary of state clinton opened up the russia reset. there is a reason why they were trying to do that. they recognized that russia needs to be part of the conversation as a world super power to attack these common problems that are threats to both of our countries. >> regardless of where you stand, you have to admit that the question is now being raised again and it has more legitimacy. what does vladimir putin have on president trump? it is a question raised by democrats and by folks in the media and by columnists, also a question that is hard to answer for some of your republican colleagues. i asked this of senator flake yesterday and he didn't have an should subpoena donald trump's tax returns to clarify whether or not he has been compromised by russia. do you agree with that, do you want to see his tax returns? >> as we have always said, the

issue of this question is that red herring. it is something that i think is more motivated out of media and hysteria -- >> how is it a red herring to see where his money is? >> i think with the financial disclosures, we've had the issue of the tax for quite some time out there in the public debate. the president has made the decision he has won the election, we need to move forward and we understand that there are financial disclosures on record that people can have access to. and that to me we need to move from beyond that question and move into the issues that face us day it day as an american society. >> republicans had lot of concern about why hillary clinton's money was tied up. if she said she wasn't going to release her tax returns and then became president and had drama surrounding her ties to a foreign government the way donald trump did, would you think it was appropriate for her not to release her tax returns? >> that is for her to decide and

we respect that decision and we leave it up to the voters to make their informed decision based on the decisions that have been made by hillary clinton or president trump going forward. you know, i think at the end of the day we can have this conversation division at len. a length. and have this fight as a nation. i'm about trying to bring people together and say these problems we face as a country are i go about, let's focus on real people rather than the divisive type issues we see today. >> congressman, whatever you do, sir, take care of your shoes. appreciate your time. ahead, a lot of people were shocked by president trump's performance in helsinki yesterday. but why do i feel like i've heard this one before? >> we're going to win so much you're all going to get sick and tired of winning. you'll say oh, no, not again. we ran a brilliant campaign. and that is why i'm president. finest insurance experts. rodney -- mastermind of discounts

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welcome back. as we have been saying under extreme pressure, president trump backtracked on one bit of what he said yesterday at his press conference with vladimir putin. but the rest of it, the rest of it, rest of what he said during that extraordinary moment, when he stood with putin, well, he is not backtracking on any of it. and it is not the first time he said it either. >> russia if you are listening, i hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.

i think it is a disgrace that we can't get hillary clinton's 33,000 e-mails. hillary clinton put her e-mails on a secret server. hillary's illegal secret e-mail server. illegal secret server. where is the server? i want to know where is the serv server. it is so farfetched, so ridiculous. i think it rekiidiculous what i going on with the probe. it is a disgraceful situation. it is a disgrace. frankly a real disgrace. it was a disgrace to the fbi. it was a disgrace to our country. phony witch hunt. witch hunt. witch hunt. it is a hoax. total witch hunt. russian collusion. give me a break. there is no collusion. zero. there was no collusion. zero collusion. then i learn ts puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. can one medicine help treat both blood sugar

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market wrap. major indices closing firmly in the green as the nasdaq hit an all-time high. the dow gaining 55 points, s&p rose 11 points. and nasdaq up 49. and jerome powell saying in senate testimony that for now the best way forward is to keep gradually raising the federal funds rate. powell also remarked on the ongoing trade dispute saying its effect on the economy will bepr. that is it from cnbc. now back to "mtp daily." i have the strongest respect for our intelligence agencies headed by my people. we have great people, whether it is gina, dan coats or any of them. we have tremendous people. tremendous talent within the

agencies. >> welcome back. the intelligence community along with the rest of us is likely feeling whiplash. and what you just heard was president trump today giving support to u.s. intelligence agencies. that after yesterday's news conference when mr. trump simultaneously expressed confidence in them even as he rejected their conclusions about russia's interference in the election. >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> joining me now is ned price, former cia analyst and msnbc spokesman. and also the panel is back. ned, you are a former intelligence staff er do you hae whiplash with what happened today? >> it is hard to develop whiplash with this president on this issue because it is something we have endured for

years now. indeed this president when he was the republican nominee said it was not the russians, it was a 400 pound man. and when he was president-elect, he change that had tune shortly thereaft thereafter, he compared our intelligence community to nazis. and then last november, he did the very same about-face we're seeing today. he was in asia, in vietnam where he had just come from meeting with vladimir putin where he said something strikingly similar to what he said yesterday, essentially that he believed president putin's denials. the next day, he reversed himself and said, well, what he meant to say is he believed that putin believed his own denials. and so we have seen this before time and again from president trump. president trump has tried to tell us just how much respect, how much regard he gives to our intelligence community and i think it is finally time that we believe him. >> ned, what do you think that

meeting at the white house sounded like this morning with the principals of all those security heads? >> well, judging by where they landed, there was a lot of hair pulling i would imagine. a lot of frustration. if blaming it on a misplaced contraction was the best idea they could come up with, they must have thrown other ideas up against the wall that didn't stick and i'd love to hear what those hair brained ideas must have been. but you can only imagine the level of frustration on the part of some members of this administration, whether it is mike pompeo, whether it is john bolton, whether it is secretary mattis, of people who have tried to take a hard line against russia who are stuck with this president, with this president who can't help but allow vladimir putin for whatever reason to be the puppet master in this very strange relationship. >> and why do you think rod rosenstein was at the white house today? could it have something to do with that meeting? >> i understand at least what the white house is saying is that it was unrelated to that.

but you never know. i certainly hope that they are not mixing matters of policy and matters of law enforcement. i certainly hope they are not doing what president trump admitted frankly to what he did with vladimir putin, where they discussed in his own words the lack of collusion in their two hour one-on-one private meeting. i hope there is not this mixture of law enforcement and policy with this administration, but we've seen it before. so it won't be all that surprising frankly. >> what do you think he said in private? if this was what he said publicly and he tried to walk back one word of it today, what did he say in private? >> i mean, it boggles the mind to know what was going on between those two men. this has been a relationship that spans years we know. and that we don't know the full extent of. and so what could happen in that room is something we don't know. another point i would say is there is often the explanation that donald trump doesn't come out strong against russia because he is concerned about

his own legitimacy in the election, but we should point out as ned said that this is something that he said even back when he was on the campaign trail. he was making excuses for russian interference and the idea that russia was meddling in our election well before he was even president. this actually predates him in the white house. so this has been consistent from candidate trump into president trump which only means that that private meeting is beyond kind of the scope of our imagination. >> and ned, one other thing to you. there were no note takers in that room, no other staff. it was just the interpreters. donald trump, vladimir putin and the interpreters. but i would imagine and peter baker pointed this out earlier that the russians probably had some sort of listening device in that room. who knows if we did as well. i mean, maybe no one had a listening device, but it would be hard to believe given how the russians operate. is there any concern out there that they may have a record of

it and we do not? is there is a scenario where anybody in our government should be meeting alone with somebody like vladimir putin? >> absolutely not. look, one-on-one meetings between presidents are exceedingly strikingly rare. president obama as far as i know had one true one-on-one during his presidency. and in fact it was with vladimir putin. so he could deliver a very carefully scripted and choreographed message about russia's meddling in our election. there were no other meetings like this for a very simple reason. it is a terrible idea. it is a terrible idea because the meeting is left to interpretation. and unfortunately what we've seen with president trump and the russians, they will use everything they have on him and there have been allegations about what that might entail. what they have now are two hours of discussion with someone who isn't always careful with his words, sometimes imprudent with his comments.

and if donald trump said anything in that meeting that could come back to bite him, that could be seen as embarrassing, you can bet that the russians whether they have a recording, whether it is just notes, whatever it is that they will use that against him in the future as additional leverage in addition to whatever they have now. >> one thing that donald trump has going for him is that i guess he doesn't often get embarrassed by anything that he says. he's sure said a whole lot of improbable things over the past few years. i talked about this at the top of the hour. let's play it now. john brennan this morning on "morning joe" talking about potentially withholding some intelligence from the president. >> would there be a tendency for intelligence gatherers believ s to withhold vital intelligence from the president? >> there might be out of concern. >> susan. >> if he means they may be keeping certain bits of information that affect the president and potentially this investigation into collusion that would be one thing.

otherwise as dangerous as a man donald trump is, he is the president. people need to do their jobs. and they can't keep information from the president if he requests it. that would be a fireable offense rightfully so. but what it does say and we've heard this all around all the people i'm sure we have all spoken to, so many people are afraid what donald trump will do when gets information. they don't like putting anything forward proactively. they really just want to keep to what he potentially needs to know. >> he told israel's intelligence to the russians. >> and you know, not so much i think the issue might not be so much whether or not you have our intelligence folks not wanting to reveal intelligence to him, but other countries. whether or not they would want to reveal their intelligence. particularly countries that we don't have agreements with. >> and that happened in england when there was the terrorist attack there and theresa may basically said we can't trust the united states right now

because donald trump started talking about it before the information was out there. we'll come back -- not come back to this, but we'll take a quick break. ned, thank you very much. panel, stay with us. coming up, a potentially big development today in the russian probe, special counsel wants to give immunity to five secret paul manafort witnesses. stay with us. 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.

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tonight meet the midterms. if it is tuesday, somebody is voting somewhere. and today that somewhere is alabama where republicans have an interesting choice before them. will they pick a republican who did not vote for donald trump in 2016 or a former democrat who once voted for nancy pelosi as speaker? incumbent congressman martha robby got forced into the runoff in part because she called donald trump unacceptable as a candidate. and now she has president trump's endorsement, but that is not stopping her opponent bobby bright from seizing on her past criticism of the president. >> in 2016, martha roby made a name for herself as one of the loudest never trumpers in the country. her vote against donald trump is a vote for open borders, a vote for abortions, a vote for higher taxes. she fooled us once. don't let her fool us again. >> he is trying to tie her to pelosi and he used to be a

democrat. we'll find out today if republican voters think roby's past criticism of trump is a recent -- excuse me. past criticism trump's a recent endorsement from the president.. and it's only on a few categories. and when those categories change, you gotta sign up again. when does it end?! with the capital one quicksilver® card, you earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. it's like a cash back oasis. what's in your wallet?

so lionel, what does 24/5 mean to you?rade well, it means i can trade after the market closes. it's true. so all... evening long. ooh, so close. ♪ . time now for the lid. the panel is back. guys, president obama made -- not a comeback, i don't want to say that, but an appearance today. and had some of his strongest statements about the current state of affairs across the world and russia. listen to what he said about russian meddling and why the russians were motivated, might have been motivated to start interfering. >> russia, already humiliated by its reduced influence since the collapse of the soviet union,

suddenly started reasserting authoritarian control. and in some cases, meddling with its neighbors. >> he also called the times we're living in strange and uncertain. and each day's news cycles bring for head spins and disturbing headlines. those are stronger statements he's made so far. >> i wish they were stronger. part of what he did, he noted the authoritarian populism emerging in europe and in the united states. russia has had in its history a sense of humiliation at the heart of nationalism, whether in relation to france and other western european countries, and that sense of chip on the shoulder has driven russia in terms of geopolitics from early on. to note that in this context is important, but it's also to note a historical fact. it was important for obama to point to these authoritarian

tendencies showing up. >> is that what he looked like on the campaign trail? or does he need to be stronger? >> this is testing out messaging. he knew he would be reviewed by everybody on what he had to say. it's going to be a difficult time for president obama to go out there, overly forceful, because he can't -- no one can play donald trump's game. once you go there, he will just keep going after you. and the president -- president obama has frankly just too much class, style and respect for the american public to go that low. and he won't. so it's going to be an interesting test to see how strong will he be someone who's fighting for democratic candidates or someone who's fighting against president trump. >> let's go to paul manafort. we find out a lot about the mueller investigation, or as much as we do find out about it, from the court filings, and oftentimes they involve paul manafort. right now the special counsel's

office is trying to get immunity for five people who are testifying against paul manafort. the court filing states that the motions indicate the named individuals will not testify or provide other information on the basis of their privilege against self-incrimination. and that the government is requesting that the court compel them to testify at the upcoming trial. that's kind of big news. >> it is. you know, this has been another example of what we already know, which is that the special counsel's office is way ahead of the rest of us. i mean, when we last -- last friday when they charged the 12 russians, we heard from members of the senate intelligence committee that was new information to them too. and so what we know is that this is an investigation that moves in silence and moves quickly and thoroughly. no matter how much noise is happening on the outside from the president, from the white house, and how much the kind of public relations strategy they're waging against it, they continue to move forward. in this instance, we now have another example of the mueller investigation working on individuals to possibly -- to

now come out and testify against the president's former campaign manager. we don't know who these people are. it's probably bad to speculate. they are so ahead of us. >> they make a note to say these people have not been publicly named before the case at all. they're not names we've brought up at all. >> a lot of people are looking at the manafort investigation dealing with finances, bank transactions. this would be pretty much a paper trail to follow as far as evidence. now that you add five people into it, it says that we're probably going in a different direction. >> paul manafort is the only person who has not pleaded guilty so far who -- the only american who has been indicted. >> trump is scared out of his wits. >> you think so? >> absolutely. it seems to me with every move, the 29-page indictment, whether the five witnesses going to have use immunity to testify, the

fbi -- >> or michael cohen. >> yeah, michael cohen. all of these pieces are at work and they move from collusion to obstruction to money, and trump knows what he knows, and he's scared out of his mind. >> we will see. guys, thank you very much. and ahead, just another washington power trip. ♪ ♪

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that be suddenly weren't. here's the president talking about america's intelligence community. >> i have a full faith in our intelligence agencies. oops, they just turned off the lights. that must be the intelligence agents. there it goes. okay. you guys okay? that was strange. but that's okay. >> talk about things taking a dark turn. the president, ever the tv expert, started over again for the cameras. this sort of thing, though, isn't limited to republicans. you may remember the clintons had a close call with tv lights during a 60 minutes interview in 1992. nobody was hurt, thankfully. so what was it? a sign from above, a hack of the electrical grid, somebody leaning against the light switch, or just a slight blip in a centuries old building? we as americans deserve to know. white house press office, get on it.

is that the intelligence communities? what's going on? this is weird and uncomfortable. we as americans deserve to know. white house, press office, get on it. see, like the president, i started again. that is all for tonight. we will be back with more "mtp daily" tomorrow. in the meantime, "the beat" starts right now. the top story tonight is not the president's deflection, it is the policy crisis that is engulfing the presidency. a bipartisan chorus of national security experts, legislators, and donald trump's own staff say he publicly failed in this now very controversial summit with vladimir putin. this fallout is intense, even by the standards of this trump era because donald trump made history in a bad way. and this is still sinking in for some. but this is the first time an american president ever joined a russian leader to undercut