know, to pull through all that, you know. so, thank god for that. >> that's all for now. welcome to "kasie d.c." i'm kasie hunt. we are live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight august in washington feels even hotter than usual. president trump today publicly roaring as one paper puts it. speaking out on twitter about that trump tower meeting. possibly putting himself and his son in front of legal jeopardy. the president also ramping up his campaigning ahead of november while taking a shot at ohio's favorite son ahead of a high-stakes special election. plus, when governor jay

inslee was asked whether he'll take on trump in 2020, he said he's running against him already. i'll ask him what that means when he joins me live. and congressman seth moulton turning fellow vetd ranz into members of congress. he joins me live as well. but first president trump who is spending his sunday at his golf club in bedminster, new jersey, taking 0 twitter seeming to deflect from the investigation of robert mueller into his campaign. there was a familiar attack on, quote, the fake news, the enemy of the people. mueller and the so-called 17 angry democrats. the fake dossier, as he puts it and of course the classic witch hunt. but slipped in between those tweets is the one getting the most a attention acknowledging the subject of a meeting involving his oldest son and lawyer with close ties to the kremlin. tweeting, 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. here's how one of trump's attorneys responded this morning defending the meeting. >> according to the e-mail that special counsel robert mueller has, this was a meeting to get information from the crown prosecutor of russia on hillary clinton's campaign. how would that be legal? >> well, the question is how would it be illegal? i mean, the real question here is with a meeting of that nature constitute a violation. the meeting itself constitute a violation of the law. >> trump's tweet about that event conflicting with a statement that don junior had released to "the new york times" in july 2017 that the meeting had been primarily about the issue of adoption of children by americans. the trump tower the subject of special counsel robert mueller's investigation. with that i'd like to welcome in

my panel. joining me on set political reporter to axios, jonathan schwan. greg bauer, former u.s. attorney and fbi assistant director. ken dilanian who covers security and intelligence for nbc news. and white house correspondent for bloomberg news, shannon petty piece along with ashley parker doing white house duty for the washington post at trump's summer get away in new jersey. thanks to all of you for being here on this sunday night. i want to set the stage with you first, mr. brower, about the potential legal jeopardy the president is putting himself in or not. how do you assess the statement that jay sekulow made there essentially saying that it's not illegal? do you think that they are now in a worse legal position than they were? >> well, they are certainly not doing themselves any favors with statements like this. i've said it before, i'll say it again. it's a really bad idea for the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation to be speaking out like this, especially by way of twitter. it remains to be seen what the mueller team will make of this particular tweet, but it's not

necessarily the case, but it does not create exposure. >> jonathan swan, these tweets seem to be the product of -- the phrase that you introduced to the world, executive time at bedminster. there is apparently quite a bit more executive time on the schedule? >> the president has a very light schedule this week. mostly executive time, but a dinner each night with supporters and business leaders. i want to get back to this topic. i think i feel like i'm going crazy because trump said exactly this last july, like i went back because i was like, i feel like he said this before. and i went back to the quote. and he literally said last july, most people would have taken that meeting. it's called opposition research or even research into your opponent. that's very standard in politics, where they have information, you take the information. trump has already conceded the purpose of this meeting was to get information about his political opponent. sure, like it's a shocking thing to reverse yourself in that way, but he did it last july.

i was just kind of perplexed why it was this rolling news story today. >> did we know then that he definitely had crafted that statement with don junior back in july? because we might have been living in a world then where it was like, he weighed in the way any father would, but it wasn't to the point where even his lawyers had acknowledged, yeah, he wrote that statement. so maybe now in this new context. but i mean, if you're robert mueller and you're going back and looking through all these tweets, yeah, he definitely has a chronology of what's been said, when on twitter he can go through any moment. >> the answer to sekulow's question why would this be illegal is election know. as he well knows it's illegal for foreign nationals to offer anything of value. it's illegal to solicit a thing of value. even if nothing was transmitted it's illegal to try. it's a conspiracy. it looks more and more like donald trump has exposure hire

and his father realizes that. you wonder when tweets like this start appearing what's going on behind the scenes. there's a lot of churn in the russia investigation. michael cohen is on the bubble. he may cooperate. paul manafort son trial. manafort's lawyer has the fbi interviews of rick gates. who knows what rick gates has told the fbi about potential collusion issues even. all of this is factoring in into donald trump's tweets now. >> the story of course that set the president off this morning that he is concerned about the meeting that his quote-unquote wonderful son had in 2016, could possibly have been this one in the washington post. quote, the president privately about broods, publicly roars at a precarious moment. ashley parker was by lined on this newsy piece with don junior's connection to the mueller investigation and his role in organizing the june meeting at trump tower. writing, quote, as one advisor described the president's thinking, he does not believe his son purposefully broke the law, but is fearful nonetheless that trump junior inadvertently may have wandered into legal jeopardy. ashley, this was a story from

you and your colleagues in the washington post. put this in a little bit of broader context for us, this storm of tweets that jonathan swan knows we've heard echos of in the past. but clearly the context that everyone is living in very different now than it was a year ago. >> yeah, that's exactly right. and the irony is that the story, this post story that we wrote that prompted this tweet where he's denying the story, the story says that he is privately brooding and publicly roaring. that's actually exactly what you saw in the tweet. you saw a man privately brooding over our story and publicly came out with a bit of a roar. what's coming out in a context of a year ago mueller's probe has expanded. and as it has, the president has felt sort of, at times in his most intro speculative moments, pangs of culpability, that these people, including even someone like paul manafort he believes are getting embroiled in something that would not be happening were it not for their connection with him. and that is, of course, most stark with his eldest name sake son, don junior.

>> how does trump sort of emotions and state of mind play into this when it is his son as opposed to others around him -- he's concerned about people like hope hicks who we saw surface this weekend. >> he is concerned about everyone in his inner circle and he does feel and he has said to people privately that they would be getting treated differently were it not for their connection to him. but with president trump as we know, what he values most are two things, one is loyalty and one is family. so the closest person in there who is actual family is his son, don junior, and he is very upset. and again, he doesn't believe his son intentionally did anything wrong. he thinks he may have inadvertently wandered into some trouble. or even at the very least his son did absolutely nothing wrong. but his son is getting dragged before congress, dragged before mueller, in the news, and it upsets him deeply. >> shannon, before you mentioned what we knew and didn't know a year ago around this. one thing that came out the president himself dictate that

had statement about the meeting aboard air force one initially that was attributed to his son. how in your view does that play into this as far as, you know, when we're trying to answer how much legal jeopardy is don junior in here? >> well, it would make -- it could potentially, depending on what's found wrongdoing, make the president coconspirator in some sort of a cover up or some sort of conspiracy with russia. that's the concern here. is he a co-conspir for if any wrongdoing is found there. on the don junior front, i have heard from people over the years exactly to ashley's point, over the months, i should say. it feels like years. >> it does, doesn't it? >> this idea that they lear from the president saying, gosh, how did don junior get caught up in this? don junior is supposed to be off hunting somewhere raising money for republicans in texas.

the president almost couldn't believe don junior somehow got sucked in the middle of this, in digs belief that don junior was the one who got pulled in. >> more from ashley and her colleagues at the post, that despite his private concern for those like donald junior in public, quote, trump is a man roaring. trump is more than ever channeling his frustration and fear into a ravenous grievance. he is churning out false statements with greater frequency and attacking his perceived enemies with intensifying fury. it has not been years with the trump administration, despite the fact we might all age that amount of time. how does this report around his state of mind square with what you know? >> well, i think the hard thing always with trump is to gauge changes in state of mind because it's really a moment to moment proposition. there's been mornings where he fires -- he'll be angry about something that he's seen in "the new york times" and he does really read the physical papers

and he'll see something that sets him off and he'll fire off a tweet. but then he'll get distracted and get a phone call and his mood will literally change. >> on a dime. >> on a dime. so the thing i haven't got my head around and been able to wrap my head around is whether there's been any sort of substantive long-term change in the way he feels about any of this. i just don't know. it's just something that i haven't been able to really gauge because i get reports that are sort of anecdotal from sources in there of a moment when he erupts and it's very hard to work out whether that's indicative of something that's, you know, long-term. >> whether it's -- >> did you try to get the sense after that michael cohen raid,

there are moments when things chapd. after the michael cohen raid, his thinking about the whole investigation and anger and angst about it all. >> that was definitely a turning point. >> craig, let's talk for a minute, one thing i've been trying to get my head around repeatedly as this comes out, we know robert mueller is looking at the tweets. in the past, you know, we're hitting a watergate anniversary, for example, of some of those back and forths where it was revealed president nixon had essentially ordered a cover up. that was all information we didn't have before the investigation was undertaken. here you have a situation where potentially his public statements are incriminating him. is that much different from, you know, other cases we've seen? >> it is different. in my experience as the target or in this case in the president's case the subject of a criminal investigation feels the wall start to close in on them, they often become

desperate and at least are tempted to make emotional statements and act emotionally. it's usually the job of their defense lawyers to make sure that doesn't happen in a public way because it can only hurt their chances vis-a-vis the prosecution. here, though, there is this curious reality where the president's team doesn't seem to be able to rein him in. tweet after tweet no defense lawyer wants to see. >> ken dilanian, it feels like years ago, but this tweet about jeff sessions where he ordered sessions or didn't order sessions to shutdown the investigation, or suggested that's what he should do. >> right. >> right. house did that statement play into this broader question of legal jeopardy? >> it's some people see it as obstruction in plain sight. and it's also part of a piece of him savaging the law enforcement agencies of this country, the fbi and the justice department.

and robert mueller and his team of fbi agents, prosecutors are not talking back to that. all they're doing is potentially working an extra hour at night on the trump investigation. it's just a bad idea from a strategic level and it remains to be seen whether it's going to get him in legal trouble. >> ashley parker, can i ask you kind of what your sense is? you're there at bedminster covering the president's vacation. there is a lot of unoccupied time on his schedule going forward that could potentially lead to more of these -- i mean, has his staff tried to manage that? is that a good plan generally speaking for him? how much more trouble could he cause? >> well, these periods of unstructured time as i believe jonathan wrote tonight, they used to be something that his staff would stress out about. they would try to fill his days with meetings and briefings just to keep him occupied to prevent exactly what we're seeing. the president watching cable news and tweeting about it, tweets that no one knows are coming. if you look at his public schedule for the week, he has a lot of unstructured down time. so i think we can expect to see more of this. the one wrinkle i will add is that this past week, for instance, he did three of these megarallies in five days. that is a calculation for the

midterms. he's going out and campaigning for candidates. but one of the up sides is that these rallies where the president appears in front of thousands of devotees, screaming fans who chant lock her up when hillary's name is mentioned are a place that buoy president trump. behind the scenes, he would go in these rallies, as jonathan said he it would change his mood on a dime. he could take that anger and grievance and make it show man like and fun. >> we'll talk a lot more about that. greg bauer, thanks for your insights. ken dilanian, stick around. we'll talk to you later on in the show. we of course are just getting started on "kasie d.c." coming up president trump has been hitting the campaign trail hard including ohio where there is a big special election on tuesday. plus, the president versus the king. what trump's attacks on lebron james mean for the culture war in america. "kasie d.c." back after this. ahh... summer is coming.

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as goes ohio, so goes the nation. it's i political saying. since 1960, every personal elected president has won the state of ohio. this week the buckeye state once again found itself with the eyes of the nation focused on it. that due in part to ohio state football coach urban meyer being put on administrative leave due to an assistant's domestic abuse. also due in part to the continuing question surrounding what congressman ohio jim jordan

knew about sexual abuse during his time as an ohio state wrestling coach. and then the president came to town. and as he is apt to do, push those stories below the fold. after attacking nba superstar and ohio native lebron james in a tweet on friday. he held a rally last night drawing stark cultural battle lines ahead of that highly anticipated special election on tuesday. >> they talk about the elite, the elite. did you ever see the elite? they're not elite. you're the elite. you are the elite. you're smarter than they are. you make bigger incomes. you've got everything going. >> our panel is back. also joining us msnbc political analyst rick tyler and

washington post political reporter eugene scott. thank you all for being here. rick and eugene, it's nice to see you. eugene, i want to start with you on your kind of broader take on what we saw from the president in this culture war that he is essentially -- this fight that he's picking with lebron james. >> one of the fights he's picking i think is reminiscent of what we saw following charlottesville. the president is using a common talking point for white supremacists that black communities have less intelligence. he attacked lebron james. he called maxine waters iq. he uses stupid, ignorant when attacking his black critics opposed to entertaining their argument in a way that i think is what made people think that he was giving life to and encouraging white supremacists communities after charlottesville. and so that felt very familiar to a lot of people and i think we saw that reaction on social media. >> rick tyler, what did you hear in the president's words last

night? >> well, look, i wish the president could avoid these fights. it seems like he's compelled to have them. he's going to pick a fight for the sake of picking a fight. but the president ought to worry. republicans ought to worry. they are now in a district that the republicans have held since 1980 and before that they held that district since 1936. so this isn't a democrat district by any stretch of the imagination. the idea that you would send the president to a district to save a race that has this kind of track record when he won that particular district by double digits is really concerning. couple that with the fact the democratic turnout has been 84%. in ohio it's been up 150%. republican turnout in ohio is down. everywhere else it was up, only 20% as opposed to 80%. there's a lot for republicans to worry about. >> ashley parker, the president's kind of approach to campaigning in the mid terms has

been a little bit scatter shot. i certainly know from my reporting that republicans on the hill have tried very hard to focus him where they would like him to be focused at any given moment. this race did sneak up on a lot of republicans here in washington. but what's the president's thinking about, you know, his role in the midterms? obviously he's saying out loud i want to go to all these places. as rick points out, this place should be one where republicans help. broad republican territory. that is not necessarily true across the map. >> that's not true across the map, but the president who does president always like to travel, he's actually by all accounts been eager to be out on the road as we mentioned earlier. he wants the personal adulation. he's there campaigning for, he gets from the crowds. people sometimes suggest a rally maybe in september, october and he'll say, that sounds great but let's do it now. can we do it next week? so he's eager to get out there. >> you were at all of the president's rallies over the course of the past week?

>> i was, yes. >> get a medal or something. >> what was your -- you mentioned he's feeding off of this. is there anything that you notice about his rallies now that's different than what you covered over the course of the campaign, these conspiracy theories that have popped up, obviously the vitriol toward the media has been intense? >> yeah, a couple things. one is the conspiracy theories especially with the q anon crowd. that is something i personally just sort of really noticed for the first time in tampa and then again in pennsylvania and ohio. those crowds -- those signs and shirts are very noticeable. if you look out in the crowd, i will say this is a moment of increased vitriol by the president at the media, but one thing that was interesting to me, at least in the last two rallies in pennsylvania and ohio, is that on the campaign trail i remember some rallies that felt very tense and uneasy and almost dangerous. and those rallies existed also

once he became president. but the president, he trains his fire on the media, but he sort of did it these couple of nights, he was kind of in a performer's mood. he did it with a show man's alum. the crowd responded in kind. they did all the usual things. they turned around and chanted cnn sucks. they booed us, they did thumbs down. it was more they were sort of playing their role as bit actors in the trump show than actually being angry. and sometimes you find very angry crowds. it sort of depends on the president's mood and what he's trying to feed off of or incite. >> in some ways, jonathan swan, the midterm energy is a better place for him to be than focused on the mueller probe. >> yes, with an asterisk. senior republican officials have told me that they're worried about how trump -- trump is now, it's like he's discovered the super power. he has figured out that when he intervenes in a republican primary, he has, you know, lawmakers today said they've never seen a president have this kind of holdover the party's base.

he's enjoying it, almost like a video game. when he intervenes their numbers shoot right up. sometimes he's doing it for candidates the establishment doesn't think are going to be good in the general election. for example, in florida, ron desantis, little-known congressman. trump, he was losing pretty badly to putnam who is a well respected conservative. and trump just pole vaulted him right up into double digit lead. trump has told people he thinks it's more enjoyable if he has a stake in these races, so people kind of nervously are watching some of these primaries to see whether trump engages. >> i feel like there is -- >> it's kind of a shift because i remember january, february, march white house advisors wondering, should we put him on the trail for november? oh, is he a help or is he going to harm the candidates? there is a whole roy moore thing. that's a real change in -- i wonder if that says something about where the base is.

is this the republican party or is this the party of trump now. and -- >> right. republicans have always been in this bind, jonathan where they can't win with him in some of the swing districts. they can't win without him either. >> right. and there are still a lot of districts trump beat hillary by and got more than 50%. so they still think, even though their landscape has shifted a lot since 2016, that he can be usefully deployed in quite a few places. and, look, trump said he's going to campaign six or seven days a week. that ain't gonna happen. the secret service is not going to allow that to happen. he might be doing four days a week. they're going to push -- he wants to do this, they're going to do whatever they can to make it happen. >> i think it will be interesting to see what type of backlash there is to that. you mentioned roy moore. when trump got on board the roy moore train, that motivated some democrats to come out and say this person is going to continue trump's vision of making america great and i'm not on board with that so i'm going to come out and vote for his opponent. >> he was also an accused pedophile.

>> there were some complicating factors from a candidate's perspective for sure. ashley parker, before i let you go, you're reporting on the president all week. what are you watching for in the coming week? >> well, one thing that's been fascinating, going back to the campaign trail briefly, is the president has gotten a lot more disciplined. one of the reasons there was that worry before the president would show up next to a candidate. especially as he did in alabama with luther strange offer an anti-endorsement. he brings the candidate, he's there to support up on stage. he praises them, urges to the crowd to get out and vote for them in the special election, the primary again in november. i'm going to be watching to see if this level of discipline, which aides have told me they trained him to get into this place is something that carries on. in the next few weeks especially as he ramps up that pace even more potentially. >> i wonder if any of those

aides are surprised that was something they were actually able to pull off. ashley parker, thank you so much. i really appreciate it. coming up, we are going to get to the trump/lebron feud when mike joins the conversation. plus seth moulton stopped by to talk about the election and everything in between. "kasie d.c." back after this. from the very beginning ... it was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. specialists focused on treating cancer. using advanced technologies. and more precise treatments than before. working as hard as we can- doing all that we can-

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what would you say to the president if he was sitting right here? >> i would never sit across from him. >> you would never, you don't want to talk to him? >> no. i'll sit across from barak, though. >> that could have been the comment that sent president trump to twitter questioning the intelligence of nba superstar lebron james. james was talking about the president there, but he spent most of that interview discussing his i promise school which he just opened in his hometown of akron , ohio for at risk students. james also underscored the ways in which the president continues to use sports to sow division in america. >> what i noticed over the last few months that he's kind of used sport to kind of divide us and that's something that i can't relate to because i know that sport was the first time i ever was around someone white, you know? and i got an opportunity to see them and learn about them and they got an opportunity to learn about me and we became very good friends. and i was like, oh, wow, this is all because of sports.

and sports has never been something that divide people, it's always been something that brings people together. >> joining me now is author columnist and msnbc contributor mike luprika and the panel is with me as well. you are part of our show's family. so thank you for being here. weigh in on what has been unfolding with the president, lebron james, michael jordan, you know. what's the end game here and has he finally gone too far? i think we saw with the anthem that he really felt like politically he was in the right place, but for people in ohio, i mean, lebron is the king. >> this is not a one on one game that you want to pick, kasie. he's wandered into the wrong gym here. i mean, maybe this president could intimidate him by putting on the uniform of the golden state warriors, but other than that, lebron doesn't fear him. this president has nothing. he has nothing he needs. and look at this, lebron is better at what he does. he's more popular. and he has lived a life that is a him to this country's possibilities. now he's started this school. look at the contrast here, kasie. he started this school. the other guy started trump university, okay.

just start there. he's called the king, and the other guy thinks he was elected king. but how did this start? all he said was that the president has been using sports to divide us, which he has. and he's said that he didn't want to sit across from him. well, which african-american athlete in this country at this time would want to in light of what he said about the anthem controversy and everything else? and here's the other thing about lebron james. he has led an impeccable public life, and now he's helping at-risk third and fourth graders. think about the tired story line here, kasie, okay? he's not just wrong. he's not just disagreeing with lebron. he has to call him dumb, too. and in the aftermath and in the shadow of it, how is that working out for him so far? >> you just got -- weigh in on that, that no black athlete who want to sit across from the and here's the other thing about lebron james. he has led an impeccable public life, and now he's helping at-risk third and fourth graders. think about the tired story line here, kasie, okay? he's not just wrong. he's not just disagreeing with

lebron. he has to call him dumb, too. and in the aftermath and in the shadow of it, how is that working out for him so far? >> you just got -- weigh in on that, that no black athlete who want to sit across from the president. >> we haven't seen that at all. and one of trump's advisors, darrell scott, one of his black advisors has been working really hard to get a summit going to get black athletes to come to the white house. that has not happened because no one wants to because the president has not shown himself interested in the issues. the issues lebron has talked about, he's just attacking him as a person. at this rate, if he's hoping to get a higher turnout from black voters going to back him this midterm or his candidates, he's walking down the wrong trail. >> it seems to me, rick tyler and chuck todd asked on "meet the press," this is increasingly making the gop look like they are simply anti-black, all party. >> antiblack, antimuslim, antihispanic. this is long-term damage. this is math. you don't have to be brilliant

to figure out that the children who are being born today are disproportionately hispanic or non-white and you have to figure out a way to appeal to them. and trump is pushing them away and our party doesn't respond. and silence is acquiescence. silence is sailing -- yeah, you have -- leaders have to stand up and say things are right and things are wrong. the president is supposed to be the moral leader on all issues including race. if he doesn't do it, people get the idea maybe it's true what they say. >> melania trump stood up and said something affirming. >> let me pick up on that. the first lady sharply broke with her husband's criticism of lebron james yesterday. she issued this statement through her spokeswoman. it looks like lebron james is looking to do good things on behalf of our next generation and just as she always has, the first lady encourages everyone to have an open dialogue about issues facing children today. her platform centers around visiting organizations, hospitals and schools and she

would be open to visiting the i promise school in akron. this is pretty remarkable. >> it's a clean up in aisle one. >> it's remarkable except this the kind of thing any courteous mature responsible grown up would say about an issue like that. i mean, it seems remarkable and yet it's just sort of the human thing to do. but, yes, she is amazing how over the past six months i think she has really found her brand, found a bit of rhythm in herself and moving more comfortably into this role of first lady, which -- she's got another, i don't know, 2 1/2 years or so left. >> right. >> it's going to be interesting to see what she does. >> mike luprika, this raises the

question, we're here heading into august now. football says season is just around the corner. we're looking at another fall full of this, worse than what we've seen last season? >> we're going to go right back to last september when he stood at a rally down in alabama that looked like an sec football crowd in 1955 and called football players who were kneeling during the anthem, you know, s.o.b.s and he has continued it because it plays to his base. i actually -- and he's also brought into this cockeyed narrative, kasie, that if you did this, that you are somehow unpatriotic and you hate our military. i've said for a year since this started, dissent is as patriotic as the flag that he says he's upholding here. but i think we're going to hear this all the way until the midterms because he thinks he can make political hay with it. and, man, by the way, at a time when kaepernick who did this can't get a job in the national football league. >> mike luprika, thank you so much for being here. really appreciate it. see you again soon. >> thanks, kasie >> just ahead, congressman seth moulton of the armed services committee joins me live. that's next. hey allergy muddlers.

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welcome back to "kasie d.c"" president trump has been ramping up his campaign travel as he tries to stave off a blue wave in november. but as the gop continues to try to put the focus on the economy, a nonstop deluge of headlines of tweets and the russia investigation continues to muddy up that message. joining me is democratic congressman seth moulton of massachusetts. congressman, it's great to see you. thanks for being on the show. >> no problem, kasie. >> i want to start with one of the last times you and i spoke on the air was on morning joe, and i asked you at that point who you thought the leader of the democratic party was. let's take a look. i'm going to ask you the same question again. >> who is the leader of the democratic party? >> who is the leader of the democratic par if i? >> yeah. >> that's what you asked? >> she asked you that.

>> does my silence say something? >> have you had any additional thoughts? who do you think is the leader of the democratic party today? >> well, i think the exciting thing, kasie, is that there is a new generation of leaders coming up in our party including some amazing veterans i'm supporting running in house races across the country. people who have the courage to be honest about the problems that we face in america and can really get things done. people who won't be divisive, people who have a vision, will talk about how we make sure that every american has a job that matters. but i don't think we know exactly who the leader of the party is yet and i think that's a healthy thing. >> what do you think -- you mentioned veterans. this is actually a story that i've been working on as well, have spoken to candidates on both sides of the aisle. you are a veteran. it's one of the lowest percentage of veterans currently serving in the united states, 19% have served. what do you think veterans bring

to the table in congress as leaders, as lawmakers that can contribute to the conversation? >> well, first of all, you don't have to be a veteran to be a great member of congress. but statistically veterans are more bipartisan. they understand what it means to serve. they understand what it means to put the country first. they understand what it means to put people first before politics. and be willing to have the courage to stand up, not just to the opposition, but to the establishment. be willing to stand up to your own party if that means getting the right thing done for the country or for your constituents. that ethic of service is something that i think is lacking in washington right now. and veterans generally know that because they've had to put their lives on the line for the country before. so when we talk about getting better people into washington, people who can be real leaders, veterans are a good place to look. and i think that one of the reasons why we don't see so much getting done in congress right now is because we have people on both sides of the aisle who are more interested in just doing what the party base says or catering to the party bosses rather than standing up for the

people of our country. >> let me pickup on that, you mentioned party bosses. you have been relatively critical of nancy pelosi, the democratic leader. what is your relationship with her like? >> well, i guess it's been better, but this isn't about, this isn't about any one person. this is about a new generation of leaders. it's about a time in our party's history when it's time for a new generation of leadership. and although i don't know who the next leader of our party will be or who the next speaker of the house will be, i have given a lot of thought to the kind of leadership that we want, what we want to see in our new leaders. one thing is we have to have leaders who have vision, talk about the future, not just criticize trump and the republicans. talk about what democrats stand for, how we're going to bring jobs back, how we're going to be strong and safe with national security. second, we need leaders who will actually bring the party together and will build a strong bench. >> i want to pick up on that actually, leaders who are going to bring your party together because there was a conference over the last few days, net

roots, a gathering of progressives. she's running against cuomo in the gubernatorial primary. she had something to say about how democrats should present themselves. i'll show it to you and then talk about it. >> okay. >> 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. >> do you agree with that, congressman? >> new york city i'm not a socialist, i'm a democrat. and i think that it's important that we are a party that embraces a diversity of ideas and is willing to embrace people like cortez who won the special election, the primary in new york, and also amazing veterans like mike just like in new jersey who is a much more centrist democrat who can actually win a tough seat and take it back from a republican.

a seat that alexandria would not be able to win. if we want to be a majority party, we have to embrace a wider diversity of views. and embrace more americans across the political spectrum. so our party's base is important, but fundamentally, i'm standing here as a democrat, not a socialist. >> congressman seth moulton, thanks very much for your perspective. i appreciate it. >> thank you, kasie. >> you had an august recess in the house. mitch mcconnell is taking it away from the senate. i'm sure you'll be on the campaign trail. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> still to come here on "kasie d.c.," former president barack obama releases his list of midterm endorsements. one of the names on it omar of california joins me live next on "kasie d.c." welcome back. we saw former president barrack t ruin my day. complicated relationship with milk? pour on the lactaid, 100% real milk, just without that annoying lactose. mmm, that's good.

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welcome back. we saw former president barrack obama resurface this week. he and joe biden visited a d.c. bakery run by disabled military veterans. biden tweeted this photo in honor of the 44th president's birthday but he is also waiting until the upcoming midterm races announcing his first wave of endorsements.

among them 29-year-old of latino and arab decent running against duncan hunter. a congressman in a republican california district. he joins me now live. sir, it's great to have you on the program. >> thank you for having me on. >> i want to start by asking about your former boss, the former president of the united states. he was somebody who in the kind of waning years of his presidency when i covered midterm elections in 2014, having him on your side wasn't necessarily something people were eager to advertise. especially democrats in swing districts or republican areas like where you are now. how do you see this fitting into your dynamics in your race and your attempt to knockoff duncan hunter. >> i'm honored to have the president's endorsement. he believes this is a critical seat we need to take back to flip the house and have somebody that will be a check and balance against president donald trump. i'm honored to have the president's endorsement but for me this isn't about president obama or anybody else. it's about the way of the future and coming up with a party

that's not just the opposition party to donald trump but is the opportunity party with specific descriptions about how to lift up everybody's life. this isn't about anybody's views, certainly not mine. it's about fighting for every single american no matter who you voted for or what party you subscribe to. >> which version of the democratic party, we were just speaking to the congressman that declared he's not a socialist and he's not from that wing of the party. the base of the party embraced that. many supporters of bernie sanders. he of course identifies that way, what about you? is talking about social i feel >> which version of the democratic party, we were just speaking to the congressman that declared he's not a socialist and he's not from that wing of the party. the base of the party embraced that. many supporters of bernie sanders. he of course identifies that way, what about you? is talking about social i feel in your view helpful for the democratic party? >> for me the beauty of america is there's a diversity of

pluratilty. i have been labeled a lot of things in my life. peel say my existence is the resistance. i care about your personal health, your personal safety and your personal financial dignity so regardless of who you voted for in 2016 or before that i want to fight for people in my district. right now congressman duncan hunter inherited a seat from his father and sells his votes to the highest bidder in washington. and nowhere in that transaction is the needs of the every day american people. you can call it whatever you want but we need a congressman that will serve their interests and not the special interests in washington. i don't care for labels, i care for getting things done. >> where do you stand on the current democratic leadership in washington? would you support nancy pelosi if you're elected? >> honestly no. i think we need new leadership. we need a new generation of

leadership. so having president balm ball's endorsement is great but this is not me reliving the obama years. i'm trying to move into the future and that's what president obama wants us to do. he will be the first one to support us. we should expand medicare for all and find out a responsible financial structure to make that happen. let's expand medicare for those that are 50 and older and lower the rates for everybody just like bernie sanders proposed. there's a whole lot of ideas what we lack in washington is not political ideas. it's political will because there's a lot of people in congress that are beholden to special interests and not the interests of every day voters. that's going to change this year. >> thank you for being on tonight. we'll be watching your race in california. thank you. >> thank you. >> we have another full hour straight ahead.

♪ this morning president trump turns the attention back to that infamous 2016 trump tower meeting involving his son don jr. and russian nationals, but it appears he may be changing the story about why the meeting happened in the first place. plus, the president insults lebron james on twitter and all-star agethletes and melania trump are responding. there's been a wave of arrests after an explosion occurred while president maduro of venezuela was giving a speech