president now admits his son and top campaign advisers met with the russians in trump tower back in 2016 for dirt on hillary clinton. >> well, the question is how would it be illegal? the real question is would a meeting of that nature constitute a violation, the meeting itself, constitute a violation of the law? what law constitute, rule or regulation has been violated? nobody has pointed to one. >> cracking down. the president reimposes key sanctions against iran that had been lifted by the nuclear deal further hammering tehran's troubled economy. but is the real aim regime change? >> hassan rohuhani is going to address the nation to talk about the economic crisis and respond to trump. but the general feeling here is that tensions are still going to go up as long as the economy is in bad shape. >> and be best. the first lady splitting with the president after her husband attacks lebron james as he again questions the intelligence of a

prominent african-american critic. >> it's hard not to notice that pattern and it's hard not to look at it and wonder if there's nefarious motives beheiind it a some sort of long-term belief system in him or he's trying to send some dog whistle to his supporters, although i think some would say that isn't a dog whistle. it's just a whistle. good day everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. after president trump's admission that his son's june 2016 meeting with the russians was to get information about clinton. the president also denied knowing about the meeting but does not say whether he knows he didn't know about it before, during or after. and at the time, he was in his office only one floor away. let's drill down on how this story has evolved over the months starting 18 months ago in march of 2017.

trump jr. tells "the new york times" he had no meetings with russians where he was representing the trump campaign. then four months later, don junior gives two responses in two days to this "new york times" article uncovering a meet with a kremlin-linked lawyer. first saying the meeting was about adoptions. days later, trump junior releases his e-mail correspondence about that meeting. president trump, his lawyers and his press aides issued their version of the meeting in a statement the president helped coordinate on air force one. >> the president didn't sign off on anything. coming back from the g20. >> in the case of don, he listened. i guess they talked about, as i see it they talked about adoption and some things. >> the scope of the meeting, what was discussed actually ended up being more about the ma zinsky act than anything else. >> there was nothing except for a discussion about adoption. >> he didn't dictate, but he, like i said, he weighed in,

offered suggestion like any father would do. >> joining me now, peter alexander in new jersey, near bedminster. msnbc political analyst peter baker, chief white house correspondent at "the new york times." and eli, perform district attorney in the southern district of new york. to peter alexander with the president at his summer retreat in new jersey. this evolving story, it does raise legal questions. >> yeah, that's exactly right. we're not going to be able to pose any of those specific questions to the president, not today. and perhaps not this week. today the white house has already called what's referred to as a travel photo lid. reporters will not see the president at any point over the course of this day, but it is clear that the president is watching the coverage right now. this morning, again, tweeting on this topic broadly trying to distract and deflect effectively saying why are you all looking into what our campaign did over the course of 2016.

instead suggesting the only real collusion between american campaigns and the russians took place by the clinton campaign back then. effectively what the president is trying to say is there's nothing to see here. this was all innocent. i didn't know anything about it. and this goes on all the time. we know it wasn't innocent in that this is potentially against the law, the idea that a campaign -- no campaign can receive anything illegal, anything that comes in the form of some value during the course of a campaign from a foreign government, foreign individual. robert mueller's team will look into whether there was any actual breaking of the law there. but what is uniquely striking here is that the president is saying he knew nothing about it, but if he knew nothing about it, nothing done wrong from the start, why the misleading statements from the beginning. why was it necessary to dictate a statement publicly that said this was all about russian adoptions when, in fact, he's now acknowledging that was not the case at all?

>> and one of the people present, at least on air force one on that trip back from europe, peter baker, you and "the new york times" were in realtime fact checking and breaking news on all of this. now we see hope hicks re-emerging. her return as far as we know for the first time. she was on air force one this weekend. she's a key witness to that crafting of the statement on air force one. does that create any issues for her, for the president, for both? >> we don't know why she happened to travel on air force one. there's some word it was just -- happened to hook up with the president and his people and decided to get on the plane and go with him to this rally in ohio. it may not mean much beyond that. but you're right. she was in the middle of that discussion on air force one in july of 2017 trying to figure out how to craft this message, this statement that ultimately was very misleading. she's had to answer on that, and that's something, obviously, we know robert mueller has been

looking at. if you are looking at, as robert mueller had been known to do, how tweets fit into a larger pattern of obstruction of justice, the contrasting this weekend's tweet and the statement that the president put out, helped put out in july of last year, obviously, will go to, you know, that argument. does that constitute an illegal act or as jay sekulow says, is it not relevant to the law? >> and elli, what is elvent to the law? it's hard to tell what mueller is looking at. but we hear from a lot of reporting that you're looking at that june meeting. june 2016 meeting. >> yeah, andrea, and they should be. if i'm prosecuting a case for soliciting illegal foreign campaign aid and a witness testified to exactly what the president tweeted yesterday, my next move is to say no further questions. it's really an astonishing admission by the president. he essentially admits to 95% of a crime and the other 5% is obvious. we can break it down. the president tweeted, this was

a meeting to get information on an opponent. that's quite an admission. and he says, well, it's done all the time in politics and nothing came of it. let's break that down for a second. okay. just asking for dirt on a campaign rival is not in itself illegal. but if you are trying to get that information from a foreign national, never mind foreign adversary like russia, and if that information has any amount of value and here clearly that information would have had extraordinary value, then it is a crime. we just saw a clip of the president's attorney jay sekulow saying point me to a statute, to a law. i don't want to turn this into a law school class but 52 usc 30212 that's a statute that makes it a crime to get campaign aid from a foreign national or foreign adversary. >> and, in fact, just if i walk with you for a second, elie, it doesn't matter if anyone acted on it and, in fact, there's no proof that they didn't act on it given all of the coincidences that then transpired with the

president saying, hey, russia, if you're listening and the timing from the mueller investigation indictment of when that first -- they first set up that fake russian -- what would you call it? >> the wikileaks dump? >> the wikileaks and also the trolling account. >> you're right. factually, that's a big gap we have to see if mueller is able to bridge. the eventual hacking and posting of wikileaks. but if there is no link ultimately, what you said right up front is correct. even if there was no ultimate delivery of dirt, you still have a crime. under federal law and i think every state law, just the agreement to commit a crime is a conspiracy. as long as there's an agreement plus some minimal action and here i'd say the team of russians that flew half across the world is more than enough. just the agreement itself is a

conspiracy. and even if they tried and didn't get the information, that's still an attempt. both of those things are still crimes in and of themselves. >> peter, i want to ask you something about this working vacation, if you will and the president's retreat and the reports we saw our friend and colleague ashley parker in "the washington post" in writing on -- and phil rucker writing on saturday that the president is really getting exacerbated, getting increasingly upset. we see the tempo of some of these tweets against the press. increasing. now today he, if he did do it today and we have no way of knowing, they release a picture of him after they so-called put a lid on all of you that there will be no more pictures, no more movements today, nothing to cover and that they release a picture of him signing the sanctions against iran. we'll talk about iran in the next block. but this is normally something he'd do in public. a photo opportunity. reinstituting sanctions against iran and dialing up the rhetoric. doing all of this very much in

private. what are you sensing is going on behind the scenes? >> yeah, you point to something that is significant here obviously. this is a president who wants to show all that he is doing. how effective he has been in making america not just great but strong again. so this would have been what you imagine is an opportunity for the president before the cameras to sign that executive order today, the reimposition of many sanctions against iran. the statement the white house put out today says that the president signed it today. we can't verify that. of course, because we weren't there. but what i'm hearing and the conversations that i've had with people that speak to the president that are close to the president is that he is not just frustrated now but in effect, he is fearful right now. and the reporting as we've witnessed, much of it for "the washington post" is that the president has real concerns that robert mueller is now zeroing in on members of his family. most notably his son donald trump jr. here who, according to "the post" in conversations with people that have been talking to the president, president trump is effectively indicating he has

concerns his son may have not purposefully, but broken the law that he would have wandered, as they describe it into some position of legal jeopardy here. and to best demonstrate the president's real frustrations here is what he's done over the course of the last 72 hours. this weekend, lashing out at everything from the meetia to mueller to lebron james. a topic you'll talk about a little bit later. so effectively, he's going on offense as best he can, even as it appears in some ways investigators are closing in on those close to him. >> and peter baker, as a form ir moscow bureau chief and expert on vladimir putin and all things russia, i want to ask you about this appointment of steven seagal as the new appointment. >> steven seagal, you know, became a russian citizen a little while back. he is a fan of vladimir putin, a

fan of the strong man. and so there's this trolling aspect to putin naming him to be his representative in this fashion. it's a way of sort of gigging the united states and saying, see, i've got one of your stars. of course, steven seagal hasn't been a star for a few years or anything, but, you know, that's the way the russians operate. if they can one up you in some way, they'd like to do it. >> well, i guess you'd call him the dana rohrbacher of actors. former actors, retired actors. >> peter alexander, i love your color coordination with that gorgeous green backdrop in new jersey. and elie, thank you for joining us today. coming up, deepening the divide. today the first set of sanctions waived under the iran nuclear deal set to be reimposed. they've signed the order. what next? ben rhodes joins me right here on "andrea mitchell reports."

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the president has signed an executive order reimposing sanctions against iran claiming it's squeezing the regime to stop its hostile actions against the region. this is a direct result of president trump's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in may that heightened the split between the u.s. and its european allies. what's the real goal? some suggest it's all about regime change.

joining me now, one of the architects of the deal under president obama, ben rhodes. now an msnbc political contributor. and the author of the new book "the world as it is," a memoir of the obama white house. thank you, ben. good to see you. so you helped negotiate the nuclear deal. you were, obviously, heavily invested in that outcome. it never was intended to deal with iran's terror activities, not really its -- most of its ballistic missile activities and other actions certainly syria and iran and the world. does the president have a point in that iran is the world's worst terrorist, according to u.s. policy, and is misbehaving around the world? >> yes, no question. but the whole premise was that's why you want a nuclear deal so the worst terrorist sponsor can't have a nuclear weapon. what he did today violates the iran deal. we're now in violation of the deal. iran has not violated yet. what i sphefear is that it's go to make it more likely iran

aquires a nuclear weapon, or we'll have a conflict with iran. >> or they could retaliate with a cyberattack and it will take us awhile to even detect who is the perpetrator. >> there's nothing to suggest that they will abandon their support for terrorism under sanctions. we were able to get them to abandon their pursiuit of a nuclear weapon. >> president rouhani is going to have a statement within the next hour or so from tehran speaking to his people. certainly a lot of indications in what both secretary pompeo has had to say, john bolton has had to say and what they said on a background conference call with us that they're saying, we are standing with you. bolton was asked on fox about a half hour ago whether he's really talking about regime change. i wanted to play that for you. >> our policy is not regime change but we want to put unprecedented pressure on the government of iran to change its

behavior. so far they've shown no indication they're prepared to do that. the president has made it clear repeatedly that he viewed the iran nuclear deal as one of the worst in american diplomatic history. i thought he was right on target on that. we're not going to allow iran to get nuclear weapons. >> the problem is we no long ver the leverage. we have the financial leverage. not diplomatically. can china and russia move in and buy all of this oil, not worrying about the u.s. sanctions, whereas european countries, by all reports, are backing out of tehran because of this action today? >> what bolton said is false. they changed their behavior. they rolled back their nuclear program. the second thing is bolton called for a regime change when he was outside the administration. so did pompeo. i don't think these men changed their views when they came in. i think they want regime change. the people who are going to be hurt are the iranian people. when you talk about china and

russia and work arounds, the people in iran who are best at avoiding sanctions are the worst actors. the revolutionary guard there, the people engaged in supporting terrorism, they constructed all kinds of black network links where they can access revenue even when iran is under pressure. what you'll see is, yes, these will have an impact on the iranian economy. the iranian people will suffer but the hard-liners will not suffer because they are the ones who create those work arounds with the chinese and russians. >> and if they were to somehow spark an iranian revolution and we've seen bad results in the past with such efforts, but if the iranian people did try to overthrow the regime, wouldn't it be president rouhani who supported the nuclear deal who would be the first target, not the military, not the revolutionary guard? >> and this to me is a huge disconnect kind november tof in anti-iran realm of politics. we all support a more democratic iran. and we thought the nuclear deal

was more likely. wasn't going to transform iran. but to bring about change inside iran. the problem here, if there's a collapse if we see protests, people might, obviously, want to support the rights of people on the street, and so do i, but the people most poised to win a power struggle in iran are the people with guns. the revolutionary guard. they're more likely to emerge from a power struggle. you could get something worse if it's a complete collapse of the iranian state. so i worry about -- we may try to tip the regime over and get an even worse outcome. >> i want to -- since you're an expert on all of these foreign subjects, i wanted to ask you about venezuela. what we're seeing here, they claim it's a drone attack that raises all sorts of red alerts for homeland security if drones could be used in this fashion. we don't know whether that really took place or they're just trying to blame the opposition or build up his support but you basically have a failed state and it's the world's largest oil reserves with an economy that is now out

of control. a million to one, the dollar to the venezuelan currency. what do we do? >> it could spark huge migration flows. could make our immigration problem worse. destabilize the neighbor colombia that we're very close to. i always thought what we need to be doing is bring about some type of break in this situation. as a unity government essentially, where the opposition is able to be brought into the government in venezuela more and a process of moving things forward. the only way to execute that is if we're working with the other countries in latin america to do that, everybody has to be pushing in the same direction. even a country like cuba that has a lot of influence in venezuela. >> we've lost our influence in cuba. >> that's my point. we've pulled back from latin america. we've pulled back from the cuba opening. we have even less leverage and less lines into venezuela. i think we need to be actively involved to avert a continued spiral into chaos there. we need some type of diplomatic resolution. >> ben rhodes, thank you very

much. author of "the world as it is." and coming up -- buckeye battle. the president making a final pitch before tomorrow's special election in ohio. will the results be a hint of what's to come in november? republican strategist mike murphy joining us next here "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. i woke up in memphis and told... (harmonica interrupts) ...and told people about geico... (harmonica interrupts) how they could save 15% or more by... (harmonica interrupts) ...by just calling or going online to geico.com. (harmonica interrupts) (sighs and chuckles) sorry, are you gonna... (harmonica interrupts) everytime. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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in ohio, the last special election before the november midterms has emerged as the latest big test of president trump's political clout. republicans are in an all-out push to stave off a democratic surge with the president headlining a raucous really over the weekend to rally around troy balderson. but ohio's republican governor john kasich says the president's appearance in the buckeye state may do more harm than good. just watch. >> i said, troy, did you invite trump in here, the president? he said, no, i didn't. so i think donald trump decides where he wants to go and i think they're firing up the base, but i have to tell you at the same time he comes in here, i was with some women last night who so said, hey, you know, i'm not voting for the republicans.

see, this is the problem the party has now. >> joining me now is msnbc political analyst mike murphy, republican strategist, long time adviser to mitt romney, jeb bush and john mccain. great to see you. so what is the republican problem because this district has always been republican. and why is it even in play? i think i know the answer to that, but is it really in play and will the president push republicans to come out, the loyal republicans? >> you're exactly right. this is a pretty good republican district. better than 10-point advantage. what's happened with the president's unpopularity, which governor kasich was alluding to and some of the other headwinds gop has, i think, for being too slavishly behind the president is, it's like playing pool when somebody is picking up the pool table by four inches at the other end. the fact we're in, according to polls, a tight race here, though i think the republicans still have a slight advantage. ten-point district shows that

there's a real political headwind in this year's election for the republicans. this is not the kind of district we're used to fighting for. >> and just to be clear, troy balderson endorsed obamacare, or the affordable care act so kasich has actual lly sided wit him and was questioning him as to why he brought trump in. he was there on stage so he was certainly not running away from the president. >> the strategy is pretty much, line up with the president. heat up the base. turn out the trump vote and try to win. that may work in a plus 11 republican district like this, but in a swing district, it really doesn't. it's an interesting campaign because balderson originally was running toward the center. i think feeling the generic republican headwind. and o'connor, the democrat, was trying anything he could not to be anywhere near nancy pelosi who he'd have to vote for, for speaker. then president trump comes in and i kind of believe governor

kasich that president trump is the 800-pound guerrilla. that makes the referendum on the president. even if republicans win by three or four points they're still running seven or eight behind the generic what they ought to get in a district like this, which is a really scary signal to people in less republican districts who are up for re-election on the republican side. >> ron de santis in florida was a media beneficiary of the president showing up for him. >> yeah, in a republican primary, the president is the center of the world. when you do as desantis did, totally align yourself to president trump to win the primary, congratulations on winning a republican primary. but that won't get you anything in a general election unless at least in most swing states. but in a lot of swing states you have to attract a little more. it's like taking a lot of

steroids. short term you're doing great. long-term you have health problems. we'll just have to wait until november to see how that strategy works out. >> nearby in kansas, the president has come out with a tweet endorsing kris kobach, the controversial secretary of state in kansas in a republican challenge to a republican-sitting governor. i donts know what happened to the ronald reagan 11th commandment, never to get involved as president in a republican primary, but, boy, donald trump doesn't care about that one. >> yeah, i think he does what he wants, which some people like about him. the old rule of politics is, you generally don't mess with uncome bent governors unless they're really a problem in the state. it's being practical and being kurtuous. but president trump doesn't play by any of the knife and fork rules of politics which again for some people is part of his appeal. but if he has to operate within the political system, it has customs and rules. so he's got a lot more enemies in the kansas republican world

than he did yesterday and long term again, these things come back to haunt you in politics. >> mike murphy has been there and seen it all. it's great to have you here today. >> thanks very much. and continuing our focus on the voters head to the polls tomorrow in michigan. twin sisters are running for the same position in different districts but from different political parties. nbc's morgan radford has that story. >> so this is your district and this is yours? >> that's my district. >> reporter: with just hours until the election, monica sparks and jessica ann tyson are competing for county commissioner. same position, different parties with one big thing in common. they're twins. >> do you think president trump is doing a good job? >> i do. i do. i wish i could just cross my eyes on that. no! >> for monica, it's a primary race for kent county's 12th district running as a democrat. >> can i get your vote august 7th? >> jessica is running in the

13th district as a republican. >> monica was always there for me. she was the only one that i had. >> we are the people that call each other every morning. >> you're so used to being on the same team that it's hard being on different teams. >> being born to a mom addicted to heroin, they suffered abuse in the foster care system before they were adopted by a loving family at age 8. >> i remember eating out of trash cans, trying to find food. that's why i know there are issues because i dealt with those. i could have been one of those cogs in the wheel, so to speak. and when i look at the democratic party, we're trying to address that. >> and how did your childhood affect you wanting to be a republican. >> i was one of those people. i had to go apply for welfare, but as soon as i had the opportunity to get a better job, to take care of my business and save a couple of pennies on the side, i went and turned in that welfare card. >> although they are still split over the biggest issues of the day. >> the contract with i.c.e.

we need to have a solution. >> in this hard-fought swing state, voters are glad to see any bridge over the political divide. >> i think it's wonderful. >> why? >> that they can have opposite opinions and still be sisters and still get along as sisters. >> you should have different views, and as long as you're educated and you have your own reasonings, why you're a democrat or republican, fine. they should be able to talk about it. >> reporter: talk about it and agree to disagree. >> i am not going to try to convert her, and she is not going to convert me, okay? >> because no matter what your politics, they say the left wing and the right wing are both part of the same birds. morgan radford, nbc news, kentwood, michigan. >> we'll be keeping a close eye on that race. thank you. coming up, unlock the gates. the second week of paul manafort's trial could bring its most critical moment.

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law enforcement officials and elected leaders in chicago are facing growing pressure to understand the surge of deadly violence across the city. at least 60 people were shot over this weekend alone. 11 of them fatally. 30 resdeptss shot in a three-hour span between midnight and 3:00 a.m. early sunday.

chicago mayor rahm emmanuel just spoke out moments ago. >> we have a heavy heart. our souls are burdened. what happened this weekend did not happen in every neighborhood in chicago. but it is unacceptable to happen in any neighborhood of chicago. this is about the fabric of a neighborhood and community. as the superintendent just said, who knows who did this. so if you say enough is enough, we must come forward as a neighborhood where a moral center of gravity holds. there are values, there are too many guns on the street. too many people with criminal records on the street. and there is a shortage of values about what is right, what is wrong. what is acceptable, what is condoned and what is condemned.

and we as a city in every corner have an accountability and a responsibility. if you know who did this, be a neighbor. speak up. >> an emotional rahm emmanuel after another horrible weekend of violence in chicago. and here closer to home, president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort's trial on bank fraud and tax charges begins its second week this afternoon. they start around 1:00 eastern. rick gates is expected to be the star witness some time this week when he testified against paul manafort. his former boss and business partner. but will the jury believe gates, someone who admitted to lying to prosecutors against someone accused of lying? joining me now, barbara mcquaid, a former u.s. attorney in michigan. also an msnbc legal contributor and covering the trial in alexandria. thanks for being with us. we're expected to hear more from the accountant, perhaps cross-examination of the accountant who was a very damaging witness, by many

accounts, on friday. that said, what do we expect next if rick gates does take the stand? >> if rick gates takes the stand, i think we can expect him to confirm some of the things that have already been put into evidence. he assisted paul manafort in his conspiracy. he's pleaded guilty to conspiracy. that they were in on it together. that they had offshore bank accounts they were using to hide their income and they submitted false documents to banks in support of loans when that business dried up. i think that we'll see some cross-examination of rick gates because he has some baggage as someone who is, as you've said, pleaded guilty to a crime and admitted to lying to the government. >> and the other issue will be whether gates as a cooperator with the government is a safe witness for the prosecution. whether it can be muddied up by the defense. that's their main case. their main case from their opening statement is that he was the bad guy and not paul

manafort. >> yeah, the defense has really pinned all of their hopes on rick gates and painting him as the bad guy. that paul manafort was so busy running the business that he didn't have enough time to focus on paying the bills and filing his tax returns and rick gates took care of all of that. i still have some questions in my mind whether the government will call rick gates. the race has come in very strong with the documents, the tax returns and the bank records and all these accountants. it's a little dry but they have a lot of evidence. with rick gates there is some evidence the defense woepn't be able to paint him as someone just lying to get a better deal for himself and telling the government what they want to hear. he could serve as a narrator to tie together some of these documents and paint a compelling story. we expect him to take the stand at any time. if you're going to use a cooperator, the time to do it is in the middle of your case. in training we referred to it as the cooperator sandwich. start strong, end strong and put

that riskier piece in the middle. >> a somewhat infamous or celebrated potential witness, the manhattan madam, kristin davis is scheduled to be testifying before the grand jury. she had an interview, which reportedly by all accounts had to do with her longstanding close professional relationship, working relationship, i should say, with roger stone. >> yeah, that will be very interesting. i have read that she was interviewed last week and has now been called to the grand jury which tells me during that interview, she said something they thought was of sufficient value that they want to go through the trouble of bringing her in before the grand jury, putting her under oath and sharing that information with the grand jury. she may not know the significance of what she has to say. it may just be one further link. but it does confirm what we have thought for a while and that's that roger stone is likely a target of this investigation. >> what roger stone has said is

she's been involved with his business setting up websites for him and doing other i.t. work. and so perhaps she's being valued as an informational witness on whatever the connections he had between guccifer and wikileaks and live connections that he has previously acknowledged but now tries to put in a different light. >> yeah, and it may be, as you said, that she doesn't know the significance of what she has to say. but she's a factness. i don't think robert mueller and his team would go on a fishing expedition asking her what she knows. they believe on what they've heard from other witnesses or what they have seen in documents that she likely has information of value to them. it may not be the bombshell but it may be a listening between one thing and another so they see her testimony as valuable and it sounds like they'll put her in the grand jury to make sure they hear that information as well. >> certainly seems if they're going after roger stone, it's over alleged or suspected

relationships between trump campaign associates and russia. >> yeah, it seems based on what we know and there may be other things we don't know but what we know is that roger stone was there, that link between assange and wikileaks and guccifer 2.0. it may be that he's that important link between the hacking and the trump campaign and that really could open up the whole campaign to criminal exposure for violating the computer, fraud and abuse act. one could really envision a superseding document on that indictment already charged against the 12 intelligence officers from russia that adds members of the trump campaign. >> wow. barbara mcquade, thanks so much. we'll be looking to hear from you next on the trial itself when it resumes today. coming up -- out of bounds? president trump lashing out at lebron james. continuing his troubling pattern

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what i notice 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. >> what would you say to the president that he's sitting here? >> i would never sit across from him. >> you would never? you would never want to talk to him. >> yes. >> those remarks from king james. as james was promoting the opening of his public charter school in his hometown of akron, ohio. first lady melania trump coming out and support lebron james saying in a statement "it looks like lebron james is working to do good things on behalf of our next generation." let's get the insights in all of this and our msnbc contributor and sabrina sediki.

welcome both. >> it has not gone unnoticed that lebron was speaking to don lemon and the president went to both of them in the same tweet and he in another rally went after maxine waters talking about her being low iq. it can't be a coincidence that every time he goes to after an african-american critic, he attacks them. >> when you talk about the president going after two african-american men talking about something that's not controversial. the americans are familiar going after african-americans and going at them in a way that gets in the core of the problem. african-americans are not as smart as white people and not as talented as the white people. there is the idea that the president is poking at american stoe society and he's doing this

through race. here because lebron james is not just a celebrated african-american male. he's doing something that's about education and he's doing something that the president could not celebrated and instead he chose to take this route. >> sabrina, it does call into action. what is going on here, chuck todd said this. this is not just a whistle. this is a whistle. the president repeatedly used his platform to attack people with color. if you think of the feud he pick with the nfl and he tried to turn it into a debate. what he was willing to do is further this notion that some how the athletes are trying to draw attention to criminal justice that are not patriotic. it was a racial attack. i think if you look at lebron james and his interview, his criticism of the president was fairly muted. the point he was trying to make that by investing in youths, you can help to bridge some of the divides that do exist by

breaking down some of those societial barriers that those community colors face. the president shows himself incapable of focusing on anybody but himself. >> a couple of kmepts thcomment over the weekend. a long time strategist, peter wehner, "trumps's made the same criticism of black athletes, black journalists and black members of congress. he attacks intelligence. trump now defines the gop." >> are you concerned that the president is defining the gop as anti-black? >> well, the gop is not antiblack. i think you got to be more careful in our society about what you say and about people that are different than you and

you know a lot of things for instance you can say about maxine waters but to indicate she's not a bright person is not one of them. she's very smart and very calculating. >> that's from a republican senator who probably does not agree on almost anything in terms of banking regulations or financial regulations. yeah, i think what you have seen in president trump is someone who have gone after african-americans and who has been able to raise by some key people. the president of naacp said that trump was racist. he might have been born in kenya and the leader of his birther movement of what trump said about president obama. i interviewed trump supporter and he was in the meeting of the black pastor that the president had last week. he did not see anything that the

president said was derogatory. he thought the media was playing it up. there are african-americans supporting the president. there are people out there defending him. >> you certainly see them at the rally and we don't know why they are there and how they got there. >> we see them standing in these rallies, sabrina. >> this is about the president trying to suppress black voices. i think that's the theme that comes out of his feud of athletes with color. the thing that's striking, too, this is someone who rose to politic political prominence questioning whether the first black of the president of the country was even born in the country. he tried to insight black lives matter. it transcends to the policies and his administration have gone back to reinstatement and drug offenses and have a

disproportiona disproportionate effect. >> and challenging the women's rights act. >> so good to see you. thank you so much for joining us. lester holt will speak with director spike lee of his new film of the incredible true story of a black police officer infiltrating the kkk. more ahead here on "andrea mitchell reports," we'll be right back. to stay successful in business you got to navigate a lot of moving parts on "your business," with expert advices and getting fu funding. each week we'll focus on ideas in growing your business. join me at 7:30 a.m. on msnbc or connect any time on all your devices. it's gone. that's why you need someone behind you. not just a card. an entire support system.

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thank you for being was. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember for follow us online and on twitter. chris jansing is next. >> hi there andrea. >> good afternoon from msnbc headquarters in new york, i am chris jansing. what's the story? donald trump jr. was asked about the infamous trump tower meeting when he was asked about it on the radio - the line went dead and he blamed the press and the democrats. the story of what led to the meeting, the story keeps changing. donald trump targets lebron james as we sit days away from the anniversary of the deadly protest of a white supremacist rally in charlottesville, virg