this sunday, liberated or besieged? president trump attacking the media. >> they are the fake, fake, disgusting news. >> attacking the russia investigation. >> russia's very unhappy that trump won, that i can tell you. >> attacking the democrats. >> they'll do anything they can to really to obstruct or resist. >> is this a sign the president is feeling liberated in his job or besieged by the growing pressure of the mueller probe? plus, securing our

elections. even after top u.s. security officials say this -- >> our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis. >> our democracy itself is in the cross hairs. >> president trump says this. >> now, we're being hindered by the russian hoax. >> so hoax or threat, what does the trump administration want us to believe? my guests this morning, republican senator roy blunt of missouri. democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota and nbc news national security analyst clint watts. also, the trump loyalty test. hugging president trump has become the republican go-to strategy. >> then mr. trump said you're fired. i love that part. >> it works great in the primaries, but will candidates pay a price in november? i'll ask long time republican adman mike murphy. joining me for insight and analysis are robert costa, moderator of washington week on pbs. helene cooper, pentagon correspondent for "the new york

times." republican strategist al cardenas and politico's iliana johnson. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. one of the questions that emerged during the campaign was this. should we take donald trump seriously or literally? well, now he's president of the united states. so are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he says that the mueller investigation that his attorney general should stop what he calls this rigged witch-hunt right now. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when hours after his intelligence and security chiefs say that the u.s. election integrity for 2018 is still under attack from russia, the president tells a rally that the russia investigation is a hoax. are we supposed to take him seriously or literally when he calls legitimate journalism fake

news and says the press is the enemy of the people and even can cause war? and what are we supposed to make of the ralliers devoted to the president who heckle reporters, wear t-shirts that say "f" the media and flash middle fingers at the tv news cameras. are we supposed to dismiss them? or should we take their anger seriously? president trump supporters say don't take the rally seriously or literally. they're just "wrestlemania" like entertainment. the white house says don't take the president's tweets seriously or literally they're not policy. they're just the president's opinion. in other words the president supporters have resorted to excusing his behavior as opposed to attempting to defend it. it's hard to know whether we're supposed to take that seriously or literally. >> the russian witch-hunt, a democrat inspired witch-hunt. >> at a campaign rally in ohio last night, the president unleashed his latest series of attacks. >> maxine waters is leading the charge.

a seriously low iq person. the fake news media. democrats are obstructionists. the only thing they do well -- they're lousy politicians, they have horrible stupid policies and they are haters. >> the lashing out a sign of a president who appears increasingly rattled. on wednesday, mr. trump made his most direct call yet to the end of the mueller investigation tweeting, attorney general jeff sessions should stop this rigged witch-hunt right now. his lawyer quickly claimed the tweet was not evidence of obstruction of justice but then argued the president could obstruct justice if he wanted to. >> if he wanted to obstruct it, he'd obstruct it. he could end it. then you'd all battle whether he has the legal right to do that. but i don't think he will. >> reporter: his associates are facing mounting legal jeopardy. the trial of his former campaign chairman began this year presenting evidence that when money when a friendly party dried up, paul manafort became desperate for cash.

raising the question of why he agreed to an unpaid job with mr. trump's campaign in 2016. at the time, manafort talked about the access that campaign offered. >> they're coming to me to get involved in the trump campaign. >> you say more people want to get involved? >> people want to get involved, yes. wanted to before but didn't have a way in. >> reporter: one republican told "vanity fair" that the manafort trial is spinning him into the frenzy. then there's the threat from his former lawyer michael cohen who signalled he might strike a deal with the prosecutors and spill the president's secrets. and the special counsel is interviewing more associates of another long-time aide, roger stone. for months, mr. trump has had one relentless talking point. >> there was no collusion at all. no collusion whatsoever. no collusion. no collusion. absolutely no collusion. >> reporter: with mounting evidence of contacts between mr. trump's campaign and russia, this week the president's attorneys tried a new argument. >> collusion is not a crime. i'm not -- i don't know if it's a crime, colluding about russians.

>> reporter: mr. trump said collusion is not a crime but that doesn't matter because there was no collusion. in a pr clean-up attempt, the administration's top intelligence officials held a briefing thursday at the white house. vowing to combat russian interference in the midterms. now, just over 90 days away. >> this threat is not going away. >> we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election at -- that the american people can have trust in. >> reporter: hours later -- >> we are being hindered by the russian hoax. it's a hoax, okay? >> joining me is roy blunt of missouri, who is not just a member of the republican leader, but sits on the senate intelligence committee. so we we want to get into some election security issues. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be with you. >> before i get into that, sometimes i try to ignore his attacks on the press. but this morning he seemed to go a bit overboard with this tweet. i want to get you to respond to it. the fake news hates me saying

they are an enemy of tell people only because they know it's true. i am providing a great service by explaining there to the american people. they can also cause war. they are dangerous and sick. senator blunt, i know this is not your point of view. i'm not -- but at what point is this rhetoric to the point where it should stop in your mind? >> well, it's not my point of view. you know, i see the media -- the press every day in the capitol walking through -- to my office, to the floor, lots of questions. generally really good questions. i do think there's so much news out there it's harder to focus in if you're a part of the media than it may have been at one time. if you watch tv every day, you could find some things that you -- on various news channels you found objectionable and probably not to be true. the president's rallies people seem to respond to that. i would say that. ive not been to one of -- i have watched them and that seems to be something that a lot of americans identify with.

i think all of us who try to communicate need to realize there's some real challenge out there of who believes what we say and how we say it. whether that's you or me and, you know, the president communicates in a different way than -- >> but at some point, calling -- when you call a group of people you otherwise him the way he's doing with the press, calling them sick, sort of dehumanizing them, it makes violence against the press easier to rationalize for some. that's the concern that many news organizations have right now. >> yes, but you could certainly find people on the news saying things about the president that are not appropriate either in terms of the -- >> two wrongs make a right here? i mean the president of the united states is the leader of the free world. >> i don't think so, but there's a lot of in depth psychology that goes on on some news stations every day too. >> i'm -- i'm not condoning that. but i guess does -- so that's the -- so the president should go ahead -- because he doesn't like a blogger that shows up on

cable television that night. >> even the president and his daughter disagree on this topic, and, you know, it's not the way i would approach this. i think not the way you and i would approach it. >> i guess the question is how do you convince the president that this is bad rhetoric, that this is dangerous rhetoric, not just bad decorum? >> i think the president really believes that a lot of the news is not accurate. >> do you believe that? >> and you could certainly -- there's a vast variety of how the same news is reported. so somebody is not -- that middle of the road news that people my age grew up with is no longer the news. >> well, i would respectfully disagree there particularly on this show. but i want to ask you to respond to something else. pete waner, long time republican speechwriter, he tweeted this about the president and his constant attacks on african-american activists

including athletes like lebron james. trump's made the same criticism of black athletes, black journalists and black members of congress referring to maxine waters, he attacks their intelligence. his racist appeals aren't disguised anymore. the closest figure in modern national politics to trump -- george wallace. trump defines the gop. are you concerned that the president is defining the gop as anti-black? >> well, the gop is not anti-black and when you look at what's happening in the economy and lots of other places. you know, when he says things like low iq about somebody, maxine waters -- >> always with an african-american and questioning the intelligence. that's what makes a lot of people uncomfortable with what he's doing. >> i don't think always. i mean, look at what he said about his various opponents in the republican primary. it's not always, but it's -- i think you've got to be more careful in our society about what you say about people that are different than you. and, you know, a lot of things for instance you could say about maxine waters, but to indicate she's not a bright person is not one of them.

she is very smart. and very calculating. and grew up in st. louis, missouri, so i served with her in the house. i usually -- >> sounds like you embrace her though as a proud daughter of st. louis. >> i embrace her as a person who gave a lot of time to public service and who has a different view point than i do, but it's not a view point based on her factual view of the world. >> let me go to the issue of election security. here was christopher wray and dan coats at the white house a couple of days ago. here it is. >> russia attempted to interfere with the last election and continues to engage in malign influence operations to this day. >> we continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign by russia to try to weaken and divide the united states. >> this threat is not going away. >> you're on the intelligence committee. i assume you have heard many of these same updates probably with more specificity than we have. what's your level of concern

about interference in the 2018 elections based on the briefings you have been receiving? and what you heard. >> well, i'm on the intelligence committee and i also chair the rules committee. senator klobuchar is my ranking democrat. >> right. >> she and i work on that committee together, so those -- which is basically the committee that would have the legislation for election security at hearings that were public on this topic. i thought the most helpful thing in terms of thinking about this year's elections that director wray had to say was we're not seeing the level of activity trying to approach the election systems themselves in 2018 we saw in 2016. i think the one area where both the congress and local officials and the federal government and local officials need to be working together is to be sure that whatever happens on election day, there is confidence that that's what really happened. i think we are at that point. lots of cooperation between homeland security. our cyber experts.

state election officials. local election officials that part of the system i feel good about. there's no question -- >> we still need some paper ballots. we have some states that don't have a backup paper ballot system. in the election bill i think it's langford and klobuchar together on this. where are you on this? >> i think we should have an audit trail. i think the ability to recreate -- >> does the federal government help fund that? >> the federal government should actually -- i think we need to be more specific in the future about how we encourage states to spend money. we did $380 million basically based on the 2001 standard. i was not actively part of that discussion as it came -- until it got before the full appropriations committee. i wish we had been more specific on that, but that's money states will hopefully use to make that transition. >> why did you vote against the election securities bill that was this here this week? what was your concern with it? >> there was no elections security bill this week, but $250 million to go to the states. >> you want it more specified? >> more specified. i don't want this to be an

annual entitlement. you know, the worst possible kind of funding is distant money and local decision making on how to spend it. >> fair enough. >> $380 million was what we were told by homeland security and state officials they needed. it's barely out the door. they have five years to spend it. i want to have things like an audit trail that people have confidence in. the central thread of the fabric of democracy is people having confidence that what happened on election day is what really happened. another discussion about all of the information that may have led voters to that decision, that's where the russians appear to be more vigorous this time than they were last time. >> well, final question here. the sanctions bill from hell as lindsay graham likes to call it. are you on board? >> i'm on board with sanctions -- with sanctioning the russians. >> his is tougher. >> i haven't looked at his bill.

i asked general nakasone, who is the director of cyber command and nsa director in march do you have what you need to respond if we are attacked? you have an offensive strategy. in march he said no. his predecessor under president obama said no. this week, he said yes. >> i did notice that. >> that is a big step in the right direction and the russians, the chinese, the north koreans, any of the other seven actors that principally are doing this kind of activity should listen very carefully to what general nakasone said as well as what other people said this week on this topic. >> it was a striking comment from him. that we're prepared to go on offense. senator blunt, thank you. >> good to be with you. joining me from minnesota, on the other side of the aisle, democratic senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. >> let me stick to election security there. you heard senator blunt's concerns about the bill this week. it was essentially unmarked money is sort of -- it sounded like that was many of the republicans there. what would you say in response

to that? essentially he is saying, he'd support more money if it's specified for what it is rather than an annual semientitlement what do you say? >> we were simply listening to the secretaries of state of the states in this nation and they said that they needed more help and we think it's paramount we act quickly given we have the intelligence heads of the united states government in an unprecedented move all going to the white house and saying that this is happening now. we have a common set of facts and that's why as we move forward i'm glad that we were able to get the $380 million out to the states, 47 states now have their funding for things like backup paper ballots but we need to get the secure elections act passed. that's what my friend roy blunt was talking about right there. we're voting on that bill finally in committee and that's going to allow us to require backup paper ballots of the 14 states that either have partial or don't have them at all.

>> right. let me get you to respond to something the director of national intelligence dan coats said about this election. take a listen, senator. >> our focus here today is simply to tell the american people we acknowledge the threat, it is real. it is continuing. and we're doing everything we can to have a legitimate election that the american people can have trust in. >> senator, i have to say it's the last phrase that sent a little bit of a shiver down my spine. so that we can have a legitimate election. it wasn't a guarantee yet. how confident are you that the 2018 midterm elections are going to be legitimate? >> i'm very concerned that you could have a hack that finally went through. you have 21 states that were hacked into. they didn't find out about it for a year and that's one of the reasons that we want to pass or -- pass our bill so that there's now a requirement that they tell the individual secretaries of

state immediately so they can protect themselves. and you have the fact that you have the president undermining this on national tv. still after his security people, general nakasone that they go in front of the world and they say this is happening. he says that night at a rally in pennsylvania that it's a hoax. so that concerns me. but at the same time, there are some very good people working on it. i'd love to see this broadened out so we start to discuss also the threats to our power grid system. the threats to our financial system because the russians aren't just stopping at the election equipment. >> is the president's comments undermining national security when he does that? >> i think they do because you have got these people that are our security people. our intelligence people. when he stood next to vladimir putin in front of the world and really sided with him over the intelligence people, it sent that same message to the world. so i wish he would listen to these people, but what we have right now is a common set of

facts between at least democrats and republicans in the senate and a common purpose to protect our democracy. >> all right. i want to get a couple of political questions in here. i'm curious of your response to something cynthia nixon said at the netroots conference, a gathering of progressives. a lot of 2020 chatter there. we can get into that. but something she said about socialism. i'm curious of your reaction. >> the establishment is terrified of that word. socialism. but if we learned one thing from the obama years it's that republicans are going to call us socialists no matter what we do. so we might as well give them the real thing. >> what do you make of that? where do democratic socialists fit in your democratic party, senator? >> i make of it that she's in a primary in new york state. and running for office. but what i have seen in our party is that yes, there are divides along certain issues but

what unites us is so much stronger, chuck. we have a president in the white house where we need a check and balance. we have an administration that is actually down in texas undermining this protection so that people don't get thrown off their insurance if they have a pre-existing condition. that unites us. what unites us is doing something about pharmaceutical prices. so that instead of what the president did giving a speech and seeing their stock go up that we actually bring those prices down. and i sit in those leadership meetings with everyone from joe manchin to bernie sanders and i see a lot more unity than i do divide. >> elizabeth warren said something also yesterday. she said the criminal justice system from start to finish is essentially racist. you were a part of the criminal justice system, a former county prosecutor. that's a large charge. i understand where she's going there. is that a fair hit? >> for people who have been

victimized and have been a victim of crime, they need a criminal justice system that works for them. i have worked with a lot of very good prosecutors and police officers that do some of the hardest jobs every day. but we know that there is racism in this system that needs to be fixed. that's why we have started instituting body cameras, which is a great solution. doing things on eyewitness id. i think the solutions are there for us. we have to reform the system. >> senator klobuchar, thank you for coming on. sharing your views. >> thank you. be right back. midterms. finest insurance experts. rodney -- mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. the list goes on. how about a discount for long lists? gold. mara, you save our customers hundreds for switching almost effortlessly. it's a gift. and jamie. -present. -together we are unstoppable. so, what are we gonna do? ♪ insurance. that's kind of what we do here.

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over the 2014 midterms through the same period. while 10.4 million voted in republican primaries. by the way that's an increase over 2014 as well but only a 24% increase. to be clear, primary elections are very different animals from generals but the numbers do provide at least some understanding of how engaged the two political party bases are at this point in the cycle. the fact that more people voted in democratic than republican primaries so far in 2018 it flips the script from what we saw in 2014 which of course was that big wave year for republicans. but the national numbers don't tell the whole story. let's go state by state. look at california. 2014 democratic primary voters were up 84% compared to 30% for republicans. but even more important in nine out of the ten districts seen as battlegrounds in california by the cook reporter, the increases were bigger on the republican side. but there is some good news for republicans in that stat.

they still produced more overall votes in those battle ground districts. ohio, they paint a complicated picture as well. the democratic turnout increase was greater than the republicans but republicans still held the advantage in the raw number of votes cast in ohio. in fact, in four of that state's five battle ground congressional districts, democrats saw a bigger increase but in all five, it's the republicans that still had more votes cast overall. potential sort of buffer there for the gop. now, let's go to iowa. this may be the most interesting set of numbers we have seen. the democrats saw a massive increase in turnout. 152%, and republicans saw a steep drop, 35%. now republicans want to argue that this was because of a lack of contested races down the ballot. let me tell you, privately, some iowa republicans are muttering the word tariffs as the explanation for dampening rural turnout. look, all of which is to say this. the primary bump for democrats

is noteworthy but still hard to know what it will mean for november. clearly there's enthusiasm, but is it enough to get them over the top? but at the very least these national numbers offer some evidence at this point the democrats do have an edge going into 2018 november. when we come back, the panel will be here to talk russia, election security, and a president who seems to be feeling the heat.

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welcome back. panel is here. al cardenas, eliana johnson, helene cooper and robert costa from "the washington post" and moderator of washington weekend on pbs. also joining the panel is clint watts, who's the author of "messing with the enemy, surviving in a social media world of russian hackers and fake news." we'll divide it up politics and a little bit of tech. let's start with the politics. the president tweeting this morning and robert, i'm starting with you because he's contradicting or denying a major scoop that you had in "the post" this weekend. the president is tweeting about the infamous trump tower meeting. he says here, let me put it up. fake news reporting, a complete fabrication that i am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son donald had in trump tower. this was a meeting to get information on an opponent totally legal and done all the time in politics and it went

nowhere. i did not know about it. the president is admitting his son had a meeting with russian operatives to get dirt on hillary clinton. >> we spent the week, my colleagues and i spent the week reporting with inside the white house, talking to white house officials, the president's close friends. he may not be concerned about what happened at that meeting. but based on the reporting, he is concerned about the legal scrutiny that is now coming close to home. his son in the spotlight. michael cohen his long time lawyer bringing up that meeting according to our -- talking to people close to cohen. so you have all these forces coming together as the president's facing mueller making moves. possible subpoena if he declines an interview. >> eliana, what is going on here with the president? >> we knew before that the president was concerned about this meeting. concerned enough to get white house staff involved in crafting a response -- >> something that white house staff with legal fees is now happy about. >> exactly. and all aboard air force one, crafting a response.

something they have denied and now we know is not true. we see the president was going crazy on twitter all week of behavior that is something like he's behaving sort of like a commenter on a website. rather than like the president of the united states. and the excuse we get from the white house is that these are just his opinions. but as president of the united states, he doesn't really have the luxury of merely opining. his opinions have ramifications about the news media, about ongoing federal investigations. about the manafort trial. these are things he doesn't have the luxury of simply blurting out. >> al, i believe you're the designated lawyer for this panel. i'm curious when you saw the president's tweet on jeff sessions here, this is a terrible situation, attorney general sessions should stop this rigged witch-hunt right now. before it continues to stain our country any further. mueller is totally conflicted. and the 17 angry democrats who are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to the usa. first of all, did you think he

was tiptoeing to the obstruction of justice here? >> when i read that tweet, i went back and looked back at the article of impeachment of richard nixon and they were all based, none of it was based on breaking into the dnc headquarters, it was all about obstruction of justice. lying or misleading to -- lying or misleading to investigators. it had to do with trying to intimidate those in the justice department of the fbi, cia, from participating in this. trying to get those positions of authority in the justice system to support his point of view. and that was the crux of the nixon impeachment. now, you look at these tweets there's no doubt in my mind that bob mueller has one prosecutor doing nothing but looking at the tweets, looking at where the red line is and seeing how many times they have stepped over the obstruction boundary line. >> it's fascinating, helene, you have a white house and lawyers no longer defending him.

they're simply trying to explain him. this is how they handled this tweet this week. >> it's not an order, it as the president's opinion. >> this is the medium he uses for opinions, twitter. he used the word should, he didn't use the word must. >> it's the same thing i saw with senator blunt. there's a lot of discomfort in defending him blankley anymore. you just explain him, not criticize him. >> we have a president now who's redefined in so many ways what a presidency is. in the past, you -- when the president of the united states makes the statement that statement is taken as the word of the united states. in many ways it's not necessarily immediately taken as policy but if the president said something in the past that was -- that was sort of in many ways a directive. we go out as the government, you go out and do that. you don't have that anymore. what you have now is an administration that seems to be in so many ways at almost wars

to -- too strong a word, but at conflict with the man who is leading it. you see them going off in the two different directions. you saw that with the extraordinary press conference at the white house on thursday where you have his top national security advisers are presenting what seemed to be a very reasoned case. the sort of press conferences that we used to have in the past. >> yeah. >> where you have officials talking about, you know, interference in the election. they're presenting all of the evidence and talking about what they're doing about it. and hours later, you see what president trump did. this is not -- you know, we're still -- it feels like we're still using the ordinary definitions of a presidency that's anything but. >> that was incredible in two ways. if our bosses tell you should do something, you take that as an order. jeff sessions didn't respond that way. it's amazing that his subordinates don't take his orders as orders. >> let me bring clint watts in here. that was a nice segue to get into the technical aspect. you heard dan coats, we want a

legitimate election. what he didn't say, we know we'll have an election that is legitimate. that was disconcerting to hear. you studied this threat, you worked on it at the fbi. how serious is this threat? how concerned should we be for november? >> the biggest fear is that people don't trust institutions and elected officials and elections are at the cornerstone of our democracy. so if there is just one state that can't audit and verify through some sort of backup its vote, it tells all of our adversaries all you need to do is hack in one voter database. just try. >> one precinct. >> one precinct. you can create the conspiracy as we saw last election that your vote didn't count. >> how easy is it? >> very easy. we have seen hackers going at the hacker competitions and just since the election of 2016 go and easily break into different digital machines. and just creating this provocation -- you don't have to hit the machines. just hit a database. this is super simple. the states can't defend against this. >> the other part you honed in on this for us and you did that in the senate testimony the

social media interference. >> right. >> there was a new phenomenon this week that a bun -- bunch of us had to explain to the public, the qanon. it's in the dark recesses of social media on reddit and places like that. qanon is apparently some elaborate -- it takes one conspiracy and puts them all together. donald trump is either this secret deep state superhero or john f. kennedy jr. they don't believe is dead. tell us more about these people. >> this has been the big fear is russia opened a playbook for the rest of the world to copy. this is super cheap and whether it's political interference or manipulation or just social manipulation, this gives everyone the ability to push a falsehood. which leads to a public safety issue. qanon, this idea there's a secret source inside the intelligence community, oh, my, we have worry about this before with the nsa. and know we're worried that they're leaking the information. this plays into you can't trust

the institutions. what do you do? you amplify qanon, there's so much fake news in the u.s. right now. they don't need to create and manipulate the truths. they can just write them. >> it's not just russia amplifying. you said you thought that the president actually -- make, look the numbers 17 -- believe it or not, there are numerologists too. this is -- i'm sorry, some rabbit hole stuff. but q is the 17th letter, 17 angry democrats. you noticed another thing at the rally with the number 17. >> if you go research this qanon conspiracy it is absurd. they have all these different numbers they come up with. it is appearing at different rallies. we have seen this with the john birch society going back years ago. and the president himself has believed in conspiracies before. his political career was very much launched when -- how he came on to that birtherism with president obama. but there's not really an expectation inside of this white house that the president's going

to somehow speak out on qanon. people inside of the president's inner circle they see the "q" signs as much as anybody and as much as anybody in the press pen sees the "q" signs. this is the republican base, this is the trump base, they have a deep suspicion of the deep state. >> this is the republican base, al, are you concerned? >> of course. look, i have lived through this group of people who believe that the moon landing was filmed in a studio somewhere. right? and we all remember also how everybody -- our government kept a place in nevada where all the aliens were incarcerated. >> right. >> so -- you know, a lot of people now actually believe that the actual people in government, this is very different. now, it's people in government undermining the country. and by not denying this at the higher levels of the administration, it gives a credibility that further feels

of the idea that government does not -- is not to be trusted. >> last word there. >> whether it's election security or putting down conspiracies and social media influence it's about leadership. we saw senator mccain do this before when he was campaigning against -- >> no no no. he's not a muslim. >> he said no. that shut that down. same with that press conference on thursday. the leader of the country is the one responsible for integrating that. we had the top guy of cyber there, he's not there anymore. >> an important point. clint watts, thanks very much. you guys are sticking around. enter stage left, the progressive democrats line up to speak at the netroots gathering. i got a little hint of it with my discussion with senator klobuchar. just as important, the democrats who weren't there. stick around. and best in-class torque the f-150 lineup has the capability to get big things to big places --bigtime. and things just got bigger.

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welcome back. around here it's never too early to start talking about the next presidential election. if you're curious which democrats are thinking of running in 2020, you might get a clue from looking at the lineup of speakers at this weekend's netroots nation conference in new orleans. it's billed as the largest annual meetup of progressives in the country. and it's seen this year as a bit of audition of sorts for democrats who are looking to shore up support from the party's liberal base. >> these past 18 months have demonstrated that the people in power are no match for the power of the people. >> it's time for us to let people know that what we're seeing in this country doesn't reflect our spirit. what we're seeing in this country doesn't reflect our potential. >> i'm not waiting, i'm running against donald trump today, every single day. okay? >> i would say to these

politicians if you don't think impeachment is a good idea, if it's too divisive, then what's your plan? >> a free and open internet is truly one of society's great equalizers. >> don't waste a minute of your time feeling daunted that donald trump has a base of die hard supporters. so did richard nixon before he resigned. >> we've got to embrace the unshakeable tree that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. you bet. >> just as notable as what was said maybe who didn't show up in new orleans. former vice president joe biden, bernie sanders and my previous guest amy klobuchar were among those who skipped it. when we come back, "end game" and the one thing that republicans in 2018 have learned what they have to do if they want to run for higher office.

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"end game" brought to you by boeing. continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. >> back now with "end game." if you're a republican running for office these days there seems to be one rule and a very simple one -- president trump, love him or lose.

tennessee's black lost a bid for higher office. this is not a good year to be in the republican primary, but five other house republicans have won primaries for statewide office. the difference for them -- an endorsement from president trump a real one. other republican candidates have noticed the trend. that the closer you are to mr. trump, the closer you are to winning. here are some ads from republicans who got that message. >> i'll proudly stand with our president and mike pence. >> my friend, martha mcsally, she's the real deal. she's tough. >> supported by president trump. >> i call diane black, you came through, diane. >> i got a big truck, just in case i need to round up criminal illegals and take them home myself. >> that last one is a nominee for governor of georgia. mike murphy is my ad guy for the week. mr. murphy, good to see you, sir. >> good to be here. >> all right. i want to put up to two sets of primary ads. one is in florida. here's one that is frankly a

traditional republican primary attack ad. take a look. >> washington is full of bad ideas and phony politicians. ron desantis and his huge tax increase fit right in. >> tax ad, that seems like a big one. here is desantis and the ad he is running right now in his primary. >> everyone knows my husband ron desantis is endorsed by president trump. but he's also an amazing dad. ron loves playing with the kids. >> build the wall. >> he reads stories. >> then mr. trump said you're fired. i love that part. >> look, i didn't cut out all the issue parts of that ad. mike, trump trumps taxes. >> yes. in the old days when ideological issues drove the republican primary, the tax hit was -- it would be a devastating one in the republican primary but now because it's all trump all the time and issues have been pushed out for this cult of personality, think about this. you have a guy running in the republican primary for governor of florida, a state surrounded

by oceans. talking about federally building a wall essentially in texas. and guess what? in the primary it's going to work. >> it's been bizarre. it's totally flipped the script. this was his moment, one trump tweet. i'm going to show you, i want to go to michigan senate. home state of yours. they're fighting over who is closer to trump. watch. here's ad number one from john james the candidate. >> sandy penceler uses the same insults in the media to disparage president trump. >> i can't speak at 4 th grade level like he does. >> conservative army veteran john jakes salutes and respects our commander in chief. >> so damaging apparently that ad. sandy had to do a response ad on trump. here. >> john james was busted using deceptively edited videos of sandy penceler. >> he left out my calling the president smart and a remarkable

talent. the truth is i'm an a conservative businessman who stands with and voted for president trump. >> it's like a stalin trial now. it's unbelievable. when you wore a collectivist tie you're out of order. it is the new reality of the republican primary. when al and i were do republican politics, you lineup what you can use in the general election. >> you're the tax cut guy. >> you're the business guy, you're going to fix school. not only your party, but swing voters. now you come out of this thing from the trump church in the republican primary with a big trump halo. in the general election democrats all hate trump. in the independents he's upside down. what's your magic light sword in the primary becomes an anchor around your neck in the general. >> so much of this is stylistic. they want to be seen as pugelist inside the gop.

ideologically, you don't see them running for the house. they're talking about trade but not taking the hard line on immigration on trade in the same way as president trump. they talk about build the wall, they know they need the that you search. they're not the kind kind of republican. >> trump has redefined what the party is. let me show you something real quick. these are all the endorsement tweets he does. they're all probably written by dan scevino. it's sending the message of what trump's republican party is ford. boarder security, military, vets, tough on crime. you don't hear taxes, you don't hear national defense. not reagan-like. you don't hear morality stuff probably for obvious reasons. >> look, the dye is cast. people in the party have decided he is the general. they're going to win or lose with him. everybody else is going to be a soldier and they're moving along with a general in order to try to win the election. it's a high-risk, high-reward or high-punishment situation. and this election is going to be decided by donald trump. >> mike, let me -- >> by donald trump's situation. >> let me defend the strategy

for a second, which is the president says, hey look, it's going to be a referendum on him anyway. rather than the party run away from him, i have to get saddled with him whether i like it or not. it's an odd way to minimize your losses? >> i get that. the problem with swing states for trump is so big there is no easily out of it except building a time machine and finding courage a year ago. that ain't gonna happen. in the north dakotas of the world, this will pretty much work in the swing states it's a funny thing. the great irony of this, if you look at who trump likes to endorse with his tweets, it's people who have done the opposite of him. served in the military versus bone spurs. a yale graduate i believe in florida versus iffy. so it's weird. he's kind of reaching to a person a that's than his own with he's endorsements. >> you want to jump in? >> it's interesting to me previous presidents didn't jump in their own party in their party.

trump has a strong record of jumping into briem primaries. he's 10 and 1 or 9 and 1 in the ones he hooeds he's jumped into. he's right, republicans want their primaries where the base likes trump. among independents, democrats are -- among independents, 22-point advantage for democrats right now which makes the trump endorsement in the primary a very vulnerable -- puts republicans in a vulnerable position. >> we're talking about the republican divide. i learned something from net ritz name helene. the democrats are about to have their own fight inside the party. a amy klobuchar didn't look like she was comfortable answering -- >> socialism. >> socialism. this is the democratic party is about to go through their own trumpian-like experience here. >> oh, no, they're going to have the same issue that we're seeing

play out in the republican party and with the republican primary situation that we're having right now it's just so nasa nating because it feels as if we're seeing political science 101 is the same stuff that gets you out of the primary that gets you to win a primary when you have to go so far to the left or right is what can weigh you down in the general election. you're seeing that amplified right now this year. and the democrats are having the exact same issue where you've got this war and you have the progressive wing and the left, the left of the left have been so pissed off ever since 2016, any win, they're doubling down on the kamala harrises and cynthia nixon. they were throwing spit was at mark warner months ago. it's going to be -- i think it's just going to be fun to watch. >> the left is so crowded. it's only summer '18. you think about all the people competing for that progressive mantle. keep an eye on louisiana.

could someone from the center? they ride up the center in 2019-2020. >> mike, i feel like we're headed to something you've got trump and his base, you may have elizabeth warren and her base. this is what the two bases of the political parties actually want this. here, this is who we really are, you in the middle. you decide, hold your nose and pick a side. >> right. >> is that how the 2020 race is going to be? >> it's normally a card trick. pick any card you don't want. the problem is there's a great appetite for centerists but there is no distribution system. we're not built for 7-up to be number 1, it's coke or pepsi. it's distribution. it is a hard to run a third-party candidate. you wind up in the electoral college where you ask the two parties to put themselves out of business. my bet is you're going to have somebody trumpian. look, i do think if we have a bumpy midterm the whole trump thing in '19 could be a whole new ball game. on the democratic side the muscle is on the progressive side. >> i'm going to pause it there. we get to do real politics today.

before we go a quick programming note for you. tomorrow night my colleague nbc news anchor lester holt will sit down with director spike lee and new film black klansman coming out one year after charlottesville. i'll also be speaking with the film's subject ron stall wargt. thanks for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >> you can see more "end game" and post game sponsored by boeing on the "meet the press" facebook page. (vo) why do subaru forester owners always seem so happy? because they've chosen the industry leader. subaru forester holds its value better than any other vehicle in its class according to alg. better than cr-v. better than rav4.

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