with its historical records... ancestry's dna test ...you could learn you're from ireland... ...donegal, ireland... ...and your ancestor was a fisherman. with blue eyes. just like you. begin your journey at ancestry.com. we're late again. my thanks. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> i want to hear you speak even faster the next time. you're going to be like the old fedex and we're going to show our age here. you'll be like the old fedex guy. anyway, thank you, nicolle. if it's thursday, it's the president versus his own attorney general. well, good evening and welcome to just another sleepy august day here at "mtp daily."

i'm chuck todd here in washington. the president's campaign to stop robert mueller continues to spill out into the open. there's a new report that he's been trying to find a way to pardon paul manafort for weeks and he continues to vent about his attorney general. at the center of it all, it's robert mueller. why does he care so much about his attorney general? because he recused himself. so today attorney general jeff sessions joins a growing group of current and former trump allies who are now pushing back against the president. first we have michael cohen pleading guilty and accusing the president of directing him to break the law. then today we learned the head of the "national enquirer" david pecker is looking out for himself first and has been given some form of immunity so he can tell robert mueller's team about what he knows about mr. trump's involvement in payoffs to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. after months of being on the receiving end of presidential jabs almost daily, the attorney general is actually punching back, and that's where we begin tonight with the escalating fight between the president and his attorney general. here was president trump this morning.

>> i mean he was worse than anybody, in my opinion. he got nothing. he's a democrat, he got nothing. the reason he got nothing, because the dems are very strong in the justice department. i put an attorney general that never took control of the justice department, jeff sessions. never took control of the justice department. >> sessions, who was at the white house this afternoon, by the way, for a previously scheduled event, pushed back with a statement directly responding to that last line from the president. quote, i took control of the department of justice the day i was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success in effectuating the president's agenda. while i am attorney general, the actions of the department of justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. the president has been vocal about his anger with sessions since he recused himself from the russia investigation last year and today no exception. >> jeff sessions recused himself, which he shouldn't have done. or he should have told me.

even my enemies say that jeff sessions should have told you that he was going to recuse himself and then you wouldn't have put him in. he took the job and then he said i'm going to recuse myself. i said what kind of a man is this? >> folks, the president's real problem with jeff sessions isn't about control at the justice department and it isn't really about his recusal. it's that investigations won't weaponize the justice department in the president's favor, plain and simple. and until now senators have stood behind the attorney general when the president attacked him, republican senators. but this time, there may be some cracks developing in sessions' support on capitol hill. let's bring in tonight's panel, sahil kapur, tiffany cross, managing editor of "the beat d.c." and matthew continetti. sahil, let me start with you. i thought the sessions' pushback

today had as much to do with the president but now that you have people that the justice department indicts, like congressman duncan hunter adopting the president's rhetoric, the chief law enforcement general in this country felt like he had to push back. >> we have to consider the context in which this is happening. the justice department has extracted guilty pleas or convictions for the president's former lawyer and fixer, his campaign chairman, his national security advisor and foreign policy advisor. indicted his number one congressional republican supporter and number two congressional republican supporter. he told the "the new york times" that he had great respect for eric holder because in his view he totally protected president obama. we can debate the facts of that but it suggests the president views the role of attorney general as protecting him primarily and he doesn't separate himself from the institution. jeff sessions knows he has to protect the institution. >> what was interesting today was the reaction on capitol hill. let me play for you lindsey graham and then i want to read you john cornyn's statement.

here is lindsay graham. >> the president is entitled to an attorney general that he has faith in, somebody that's qualified for the job. clearly attorney general sessions doesn't have the confidence of the president, and all i can say is that i have a lot of respect for the attorney general, but that's an important office in the country and there -- after the election i think there will be some serious discussions about a new attorney general. >> let me put up john cornyn's statement. number two in the republican leadership, i know this is a difficult position for him, referring to sessions, to be in but i think it would be bad for the country, it would be bad for the president, it would be bad for the department of justice for him to be forced out under these circumstances. what do you guys make of this, matthew? >> cornyn's statement is open to a soft exit of sessions conforming to lindsey graham's schedule of after the election. >> chuck grassley said, hey, i

could do it now. you're going what? >> republicans because of the crazy dynamic of the 2018 election may have a larger senate majority in 2019 and more of a cushion to confirm whoever trump nominates to replace sessions. every actor in this drama now is kind of constrained by potential courses of action. i mean look at trump. if he fires sessions, who replaces him immediately? rosenstein. >> the acting attorney general. >> is that really what the president wants? and so too, though, with the prosecutors in new york. what are they building up to here? are they really going to indict a sitting president? it hasn't been done before. is bob mueller going to subpoena the president to testify? that too would be breaking some norms. so we're reaching this critical impasse where we don't know what will happen next. >> well, i think we broke norms a long time ago, but i think, chuck, what was most remarkable to me about the incredibly

softball interview of fox news with the president, he was talking about jeff sessions. the only reason he gave him this job is out of loyalty and he said he's never taken control of the justice department. >> what does that mean? how do you define control? >> i think that he feels like this is a person who is supposed to protect me. for someone whose first job in the united states is as the president of the country, he doesn't understand campaign finance law and certainly doesn't understand how the doj works. i don't know how he reconciles that statement with something -- his promise to the american people that he'll only choose the best people. i think he's fallen way short of that promise if his statement stands to be true. >> what would be the excuse to fire sessions other than trump's unhappiness about the mueller issue? >> you got me. >> could he come up with something that would sell to conservatives, matthew? >> well, it would be hard for the very reason that sessions has been probably the most effective -- >> he's been pursuing a very conservative agenda. >> also in terms of actually

implementing, hey, crackdown on opioid addiction, crackdown on illegal immigration. >> if democrats had such control of the justice department, would they be suing california about sanctuary city laws. >> those are the core planks about why trump was elected and shows you at the end of the day, just as his comment about why he put sessions in there suggests, at the end of the day it is about trump personalizing conflict and protecting his position above all. >> it's such a key point. it would be crazy to conceive of jeff sessions as a resistance hero. he set the stage for ending daca, for harsher sentencing guidelines -- >> you can't say he hasn't pursued the president's agenda. >> he absolutely has. he mentioned the rule of law. in other words, i'm not going to favor some people because they're your allies and target other people because they're not. now, susan collins, a pivotal vote in the senate told us today

that if sessions is gone, they're not going to be able to confirm a replacement for him. >> you want to do that and kavanaugh this fall, this october? good luck. tiffany, how about this issue here. and this sort of has been ringing in my ear a lot. duncan hunter -- >> yes. >> -- said this is a new department of justice. this is the democrats' arm of law enforcement. that's what's happening right now. it's happening with trump, it's happening with me. we're going to fight through it and win. eric grietens the ex-governor of missouri tried the same thing. it usually doesn't work for anybody that isn't named trump. this is what happens when you erode the rule of law. >> i think you're absolutely right. this culture of corruption is casting a very wide shadow and you hear that echoed throughout the republican party with people like duncan hunter who's echoing the president and then you have chris collins who was indicted and the speaker hasn't asked either of these people to resign. i think this puts a feather in the cap of democrats who want to flip that 50th district in

california, and it's interesting to me how this party who purports to be a law and order party until it's inconvenient for them to support law enforcement. i think his base unfortunately, i dare to say, maybe lacks the intellectual curiosity to challenge the president on some of these assertions he's made that are clearly false. >> the other thing that he said today, thaemts to mat he wants flipping of witnesses illegal. let's play it. >> one of the reasons i respect paul manafort so much is he went through that trial -- you know, they make up stories. people make up stories. this whole thing about flipping, they call it. i know all about flipping. for 30, 40 years i've been watching flippers. everything is wonderful and then they get ten years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go. it almost ought to be outlawed. >> well, as my producer just asked me in my ear, why is he being engaged in flippers for the last 30 or 40 years unless

you've been involved with a lot of criminal enterprises. >> in 1981 he offered to cooperate with the fbi and have people who work in his casino work as operatives for the fbi. >> that would be illegal. >> the kind of rhetoric that has some of his critics saying this is how mob bosses also speak. >> but it's also how reality tv contestants talk. what's fascinating to me -- >> it's true. we're laughing. >> we've gone from reality television to reality politics. flipping is not just in the course of an investigation, it's also when you have a contest and trying to form alliances and you don't want the other person to betray you. what have we seen in the last month? exactly what we would see on a high rated reality show. the closest allies flip. >> david pecker. >> omarosa. >> you're right. >> this is the one -- >> she actually has tapes. >> the president doesn't really know how to advance because for three years, we've been playing

on his terms, which are the reality tv terms. and political people don't know how to behave that way. >> here's -- he does seem to be preparing to do something that you could tell there's a whole bunch of people in the west wing that want to tackle him and are trying not to. but he wants to lash out. logistically pardoning manafort right now doesn't make sense since he's got another trial, right? >> that's what rudy giuliani, his lawyer, told "the washington post" which is that he's been advised by his legal team not to do a pardon of manafort now, at least to wait until it's over. they can't really control the president. >> when does that become obstruction of justice? when you dangle a pardon before a trial starts? how else would you describe it? >> i think we got to obstruction of justice a few weeks ago when he ordered his attorney general to stop the investigation. he put his obstruction of justice on display in his twitter feed. >> whether it was an order or

not, we don't know, could, should, all those things. >> the pardon question is relevant. the president has in previous questions pardoned his political allies who he said were treated unfairly. >> he did wait until the trials were over. >> he did do that. in the case of joe arpaio, that came out of nowhere. he pardoned him. manafort, arguing he's been treated unfairly. there is a pattern and that's why it's fair game to ask if that's what he's considering. >> oh, i think he's absolutely considering it. one of the messages from this interview is to manafort's legal team, which is to say that, you know, you've done what michael cohen did not do. you have gone through this trial by fire and maybe at the end of it there will be a pardon. >> it's beyond consideration. >> i'm old enough to remember when there were a lot of republican senators who said firing rosenstein would be a bridge too far, firing mueller, firing sessions. we're lately even saying pardoning manafort would be a mistake. do we think republicans would do anything other than issue

harshly worded condemnations on paper? >> no. we have yet to see republicans stand up to this president. you did have tom cole come out and say they have to start talking about this president breaking the law, which i find it interesting when republicans decide to draw this line, right? so they didn't draw the line when he called nazi sympathizers good people. they didn't draw the line when he sat on the world stage and stood next to vladimir putin and crapped all over the u.s. -- >> a lot of people spoke out. >> a lot of people spoke out, a few spoke out. >> i guess the question, i guess is goes to what tom cole is looking for, which is they got to tell the voters that they're willing to hold him accountable, right? that swing voter wants to hear that if they at all are thinking about keeping a republican in office. how do they do that? >> well, it's hard to know. they're caught in a very difficult position right now between the loyal trump voter, which is the loyal republican voter. nobody is going to win an election without that voter turning out and they're worried that a president who maintains

87% approval rating among republicans in the latest fox news poll is not someone to be messed with two and a half months before the election. the fact of what he does does not matter to them. >> but mueller's 60% -- >> mueller had a higher approval than trump in that poll, which is interesting. >> what will move republican lawmakers is when president trump's support among their voters crashes. that is the only thing that will cause them to take meaningful -- >> losing power in november. i think if the result is bad in november, you'll get a bunch, whoever is left, you'll get a bunch of them at least. >> and it will be the opposition party then making that decision. >> very interesting. we'll take a pause here, stick around. after the break we'll talk to a republican member of congress for a bit of reaction on all of today's big developments, yesterday's big developments, the whole week's big developments. and later, we are going to break down the anatomy of, and there's no more accurate way to put this one, an actual presidential lie.

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you know, at td ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until you're comfortable. i could be up for that. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade mom: okay we need to get all your school supplies today. school... grade... done. done. hit the snooze button and get low prices on school supplies all summer long. like these for only $2 or less at office depot officemax. welcome back. republicans in congress face a dilemma, stay silent about president trump's attacks on the judiciary, on the rule of law and free speech and have your integrity questioned, or go after mr. trump and risk the voters, your republican voters coming after you. with the house on summer break, a lot of house republicans have been keeping a bit of a low profi profile. i'm joined by a republican congressman, ryan costello of pennsylvania, who's not keeping as low of a profile but he's not seeking re-election this year either so maybe it gives him a little more latitude to speak freely.

congressman, good to see you, sir. >> maybe. >> fair enough, fair enough. let me start with the issue of the president versus the attorney general. it certainly appears that the president's beef with the attorney general has nothing to do with his overall job and everything to do with the mueller investigation. do you think the president's criticisms are warranted? >> i totally agree with you that this is about the criticisms relate to one thing and that is the mueller investigation. i don't think it's warranted. i think that very early on he made the decision that he had a conflict. he appointed rosenstein to then make the decision. the decision was made. i would say this, most republicans supported the appointment of an independent counsel or at least many did. and so moving forward, there's not much republicans can do right now or should do right now other than say i support this investigation, let's let it proceed to whatever conclusion it reaches.

if there's one thing we might consider at this point is to prevent what the freedom caucus was trying to do right before we left break and that was protect the investigation moving forward so that there cannot be a saturday night massacre. >> so how would you do that? how could you protect the investigation from your branch of government? >> we have legislation that would essentially say you cannot fire, if you do, you need to come before congress and state the reasons why. at that point in time if there is not -- if there is not a for cause reason, it would not take effect. >> now, there obviously are some constitutional questions about that separation of powers and things like that, which i think is why some have said they didn't think it would actually pass -- it wouldn't pass a challenge in the courts. >> i think that's fair, but your questions are as much oriented around the political challenge that republicans have. >> sure. >> you hear we're not doing anything and i think the answer is, yes, we are.

i might also add, what is the message today that democrats have that's different than republicans? and by that i mean, are democrats ready to impeach? because if they're not ready to impeach over what michael cohen has now pled to, then they're in the same position as most republicans, which is let's let the mueller investigation play out. >> well, no, this is what i actually -- i don't understand on this front. i hear you on the mueller investigation. but cohen is a separate investigation. >> agreed. >> and so here you have him pleading guilty in a court of law. the u.s. attorney in new york accepting the guilty plea not because of his word but because they have physical evidence. >> right. >> and accepting the idea that the president directed him to do this. that to me -- we have a system in place of what do you do when the president is accused of a crime. it starts in the house of representatives. you guys are supposed to begin investigating to see is there something here to be concerned about. that's what i'm wondering, why

hasn't that process even been debated? >> two points. one, mueller's reach in the investigation goes wherever it can go related to russian interference. and two, if you're asking -- if you're suggesting that the house should undertake investigations in this space, you know as well as i do that turns into a political circus yesterday, just as we saw with rosenstein testifying before the house. i don't think that the house is the best suited place to do an investigation on election interference, which is really what this comes down to. >> but that's what the constitution says has to be done. when the president is accused of a crime, you can't indict him, right? when the president is accused of the crime, whether you think the house is mature enough to handle is what i think that you are saying, the constitution didn't say it's not to be a maturity clause. >> but should you undertake that

before the mueller investigation concludes? i don't think you do because you still have some factual questions that are out there. we don't have the full breadth of what evidence mueller does have. when he provides a report, it will all be in front of us. i think at that point in time it is certainly a ripe question as to what the house should do. but here we are sitting august 24th or whatever day it is. i don't think based upon that plea and some of the other stuff we've heard out there that now is the time to undertake judiciary committee proceedings on some of the information that we have, not knowing what else is out there. in fact -- >> when did that stop this congress -- >> if i might add, it was democrats criticizing republicans on the judiciary committee who were literally trying to get rosenstein to provide more information than he should have provided with the argument being that you're trying to pull out what is an ongoing investigation. so no matter what you do here, i think that one side will criticize the other.

>> that i get. look, i think you are making a strong point that the house isn't mature enough to do its constitutional duty. >> i didn't use that term. >> i'm using it. but it's so polarized that nobody can look beyond their blue or red glasses. but i guess the question is if you were running for re-election -- >> right. i'd be doing exactly what i'm doing now. >> no, i believe you. you've got to appeal to two types of voters. one who thinks this thing is a sham. >> yeah. >> but then you have that slice of voters who likes the tax cut, is probably a little right of center by nature. >> right. >> but just thinks -- would like to know you're going to be a check on president trump. >> correct. >> what proof has the republican congress -- what proof can you offer that you're willing to be a check? that to me is what's missing here. >> you have to look at one's voting record. in my case -- you don't care about my particular votes. >> i care about your votes.

>> you don't have the program to go over that. but the point is that you deal with the votes. and i do think, to the point that was in some articles today, smart republican candidates in swing districts right now, and we should have been doing it for a while and many have, are speaking out when they take issue with what the president says or does because a lot of those middle of the road voters policywise are with us but they do have concerns about the tone and some of the conduct of the president. and in an election where the economy is going well, a lot of those voters become values voters. and today's values voters are as much about tone and some issues related to gun safety and some environmental issues and then we have the other trade issue. that is probably the best free market republican rebuttal to what the president is doing policywise as anything else. >> what do you expect the mood house republicans to be when everybody comes back as tom cole called it a terrible august. july wasn't so great either.

>> chuck, who knows what happens for the next week. something else could happen or even by tomorrow. >> somebody was listening to matthew continetti's reality show rant there. we have seven or eight more episodes to go before you return to washington. congressman, thank you for coming on and sharing your views, appreciate it. >> good to be with you. coming up, president trump makes the grade, but where's the extra credit? >> they don't give me credit. they don't give me credit. they don't give me credit. e on . man: tom's my best friend, but ever since he bought a new house... tom: it's a $10 cover? oh, okay. didn't see that on the website. he's been acting more and more like his dad. come on, guys! jump in! the water's fine! tom pritchard. how we doin'? hi, there. tom pritchard. can we get a round of jalapeño poppers for me and the boys, please? i've been saving a lot of money with progressive lately, so... progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. but we can protect your home and auto

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welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with president trump's report card. he's a model student. just ask him. >> what grade do you give yourself so far? >> so i give myself an a plus. i would say i would honestly give myself an a plus and so would many other people. >> just one plus. seriously. you should see his transcript. >> i think it's now acknowledged what a great job we've done. we get an a plus. now, i've done a good job. i would give myself an a plus. >> i did a good job. >> i'm doing a good job. >> i'd give myself an a plus. >> we've done a good job. >> a good job. >> did i do a good job? >> i'd say it was a 10. >> i'm the best. i'm good. >> trump doesn't get any credit and i love to get credit. >> honestly, it's clear, he does do his homework.

>> if you go back to the civil war, it was the republicans that really did the thing. >> this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean, and it's a big ocean. it's a very big ocean. it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming. that wasn't working too well because it was getting too cold all over the place. we have some bad hombres here and we're to get him out. i told the president he might live to be 200 years old. >> so there you go, a pluses across the board. but why stop at just one plus?

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welcome back. tonight we're going to take a look at what "the washington post" fact checker calls for the first time yet an outright lie. it's the trump team's changing story about payoffs to stormy daniels and karen mcdougal. we thought we should put it all in order. november 2016 it was first reported there was a hush money payment for an alleged affair. hope hicks said the white house had no knowledge of this. february 2018, michael cohen claims he used money out of his own pocket with no involvement from trump or the campaign. april 2018. donald trump tells reporters on air force one he didn't know anything about the payment. >> did you know about the

$130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no, no. >> then why did michael cohen make the payment if there was no truth to the allegations? >> you'll have to ask michael cohen. michael is my attorney and you'll have to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> let's go up another month, may of 2018. rudy giuliani tells sean hannity that actually trump did reimburse cohen. >> fund through a law firm and the president repaid it. >> oh, i didn't know -- he did? >> yep. he didn't know about the specifics of it as far as i know, but he did know about the general arrangement that michael would take care of things like this. >> let's fast forward another two months, july, just last month. cohen's lawyer releases a secret tape from before the election showing trump himself aware. >> i need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend david. >> yeah.

>> and yesterday president trump finally says this. >> later on i knew, later on. they weren't taken out of campaign finance. that's the big thing. that's a much bigger thing. did they come out of the campaign? they didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me. >> folks, president trump and the people surrounding him doggedly misled the public on this story for more than 21 months and it raises the question, where else is the president's truth not the truth? let's bring back the panel, sahil, tiffany, matthew. i know, matthew, that the stormy daniels is baked in for his supporters, but does it matter when people realize they have been lied to for two years? >> no. >> does it matter to you? >> well, this is what i expect, right? i think trump's bluster, he always -- he lives in the moment. and so what he says at any given moment is going to get him to the next moment. >> that's all he cares about. >> and so i think his supporters, as long as he is

doing what they want him to do, they allow him the space to live by his tactics. tactics, by the way, that he's kind of abided by for 30 years. >> it's like a form of buying time, tiffany, that i say. he'll lie in the moment just to get out of the moment. >> right. well, i agree with your point but i also think we can go one step further and say that he really doesn't truly understand campaign finance laws. >> understand or doesn't care? >> both. i really do think it's both. again, this is his first job in government so i think he's learning trial by error. one thing he said in the fox news interview that was another clear lie, of course now he hardly knows michael cohen, he wasn't his fixer. you could have fooled me because he tried to fix the situation with stormy daniels and karen mcdougal and long before this ever happened is he was a fixer with one of the issues he had with one of his tenants in one of his apartment building. this is clearly someone he was close with and he flips and tries to put distance there. i don't think his supporters

will ever hold him accountable for any of these lies. >> sahil, this is the challenge we have in our industry in covering this administration. we kind of know that this is likely misleading and here we are, but this is what makes covering him such a challenge. >> right. we can point it out and it's our job to point it out and we do point out falsehoods and mistruths. there are small falsehoods and lies that the president has made, whether it's about crowd sizes or whether it's about his electoral college victory. this is extremely serious. this is about whether there was a conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws by obtaining foreign help which goes to the directive of robert mueller and so these truths and lies do matter, unlike some of the other ones which definitely baked in, i think his critics have concluded he's not a truth teller, his supporters don't care in those cases.

this matters. >> i guess the way i look at it is while this incident may not matter, is this a pattern? does this become a pattern that we will see suddenly no collusion, no collusion and suddenly we're going to see, well, all right, it's collusion but anybody would have taken the meeting. we've seen a similar change of story with the trump tower meeting. we're getting close to the truth. you can tell we're getting close to the eventual truth but they're not going to get there until mueller tells us what it is. >> this is why the mueller report will be so important. even though it will be criticized by trump and his supporters, you will have a credible document and statement of all the facts that we know. >> by the way, the juror -- the trump-supporting juror reinforces your point when she talked about, well, my god, there was the boxes of evidence. >> and once you have that, then the dynamic might change. the same thing applies if the democrats take over one or both

houses of the congress. all of these changing statements will be thrown back into president trump's face because of the nature of his opposition. >> and we have to keep in mind that we still don't know what the special counsel knows, right? so i think the evidence is going to come through dripping. all these republicans who are standing in silence at a certain point they're going to be forced to speak out. i would just say that i've worked in media for 20 years. i do think the media, it's like trying to catch confetti covering this administration. but sometimes -- >> that's a much nicer way of putting it. my favorite one steve hayes put it, he talked about cleaning up after your dog. catching con felty is a much nicer way, a much cleaner way of doing it. >> literally, we look like that kermit the frog meme every morning trying to follow what's happening in this administration. but i do think this is one of the things we try to do on the platform is focus on the issues. the viewers do want yellow

journalism and salacious headline but there's other things happening. when you have these issues happening in the media and said says it's snowing outside and the media is like we have to finding somebody who says it isn't snowing outside, this is where you get voters caught up. >> we fact check a lot. we look out the window and decide whether it's snowing and in this case it's is it not snowing. >> truth isn't truth. all right, i will leave it there. up ahead, the republicans uphill battle in pennsylvania could spell trouble for the gop in other states too.

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welcome back. today in "meet the midterms" pennsylvania is one of the most important battleground states in the fight for the control of the house of representatives. at least nine house seats there are in play after their new redistricting that happened this year. we got a new poll out of the state to see what's going on there and it doesn't look so good for those house republicans in the keystone state. our new poll shows president trump's approval rating under 40 in this state sitting at 37%. we think that's tariff influenced. while democrats have a six-point lead in voter preference overall for control of congress. poll shows democrats are way ahead of republicans in this year's two big statewide races in the state because neither one of them have popped up in the top tier. bob casey and tom wolff appear to be headed for somewhat easy re-elections. remember, pennsylvania is one of the states that put president

trump in the white house. he carried it by less than a point. these new poll numbers suggest might not be so close to the gop this midterm. more "mtp daily" after this. hat" and i would always answer, "hispanic." so, when i got my ancestrydna results it was a shocker! i'm everything, i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder, what do i mark? because i'm everything. and i marked "other". discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com when mit rocked our world.ailed we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do. sergeant baker, how are you? they took care of everything a to z. having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa- now that's a privilege. i saw my leg did not look right. i landed. i was just finishing a ride. i felt this awful pain in my chest.

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learn all you can... to help protect yourself from another dvt or pe. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. i thought that the public, america needed to know how close this was and that the evidence was overwhelming. i did not want paul manafort to be guilty, but he was and no one is above the law. >> time for "the lid." that was one of the jurors in paul manafort's trial speaking out. the panel is back, sahil, tiffany, matthew. tiffany, we hinted at it earlier. that's a pretty interesting endorsement of robert mueller's investigation. you know, this juror talking about, she goes, hey, i'm an unabashed trump supporter but it's a reminder that most americans do set aside their politics when it comes to the rule of law. will politicians do that? >> i don't think they will.

>> that was reassuring that voters do it. >> yes. this one particular voter we saw do it. i wonder if that will cast a net of influence in the hall of congress. i'm not sure. i think it's really dangerous, though, as we talk about covering this administration and how, again, so much information is coming at you. donald trump really does drive the story line. he does drive the coverage and he drives the story line around this investigation. and even his comments on manafort when he starts to talk about i hardly knew the guy. he only worked for me briefly. this guy was his campaign manager for a long time. that matters. and the fact that he says they hardly knew each other, when paul manafort and roger stone i would add started their firm in the na1980s, their first client was donald trump. when we get that information out to voters and jurors alike, i think it does make a difference. >> my colleague, ken dilanian, at spoke with the juror, and she said she had no doubt paul manafort was guilty. she would have convicted him on all counts and she and the ten other jurors were stymied by one

lone holdout, which tells you that, again, it's the paper trail that mueller -- she also cedric gates, she didn't believe him, but that didn't matter, person, this one juror was not really able to explain in her words why she had reasonable doubt about this case. this one juror, and the way she behaved is a good testament to how the criminal justice system is supposed to work. she said she wore her -- but the evidence was overwhelming, and she had to do what she had to do, that this man was guilty and she voted to put him away. >> it was notable to me that the count on which manafort were found guilty were the ones where they had the documents. >> yes. >> and -- >> that tells you about rick gates. >> it's one thing to verbalize and then you can question the motivations, especially in this environment where people betray and then secretly record things, you have a sheet of paper that

anyone can point to and say this is what actually happened, then it becomes much harder for even the most die hard trump supporter to give the benefit of the doubt. >> the next trial, there's more paper. >> and these are boring trials. >> there's a lot more paper in manafort's next trial. before i go, the weird tweet from the president which then, about south africa, we put it up, i've asked secretary of state pompeo to study the large scale killing of farmers, south african government is now seizing land from farmers, unquote. that turned out to be about a segment on tucker carlson. there's been a lot of pushback here, "new york times" noting the tweet gives prominence to a false narrative. and widespread killings of white farmers. it's at a 20 year low. i talked about this before, what

is with this white nationalist streak, and being led by tucker carlson? >> attention to these issues is springing from a lot of things. one is just the explosion in immigration in the united states, called out a lot of this type of thought and discourse. another thing is, the president, because he's out of the traditional political process, when he came into power he to some degree legitimized some of the most die hard of his supporters. not necessarily he doesn't endorse their ideas, but they certainly endorse his. >> the bush wing of the party had sort of almost excommunicated this crowd. >> tried. and then this crowd also loathes the bush wing of the republican party. so it's a combination of factors. what's interesting to me, though, is it shows where trump is getting his information. this is not an issue that was presented to him by mike pompeo. it's an issue he's telling mike pompeo to look into because of a segment he saw on cable. he has resources at his disposal, like the cia, which

could be telling him what's actually happening. >> it's a dog whistle on white nationalism. >> dog whistle? >> maybe a bull horn. depending what -- >> i was going to say -- i think everybody heard it. >> matthew is exactly right that the one thing that this group of white nationalists generally likes president president, the issue of immigration, they hate the way the country is changing d demographically. and they believe that president trump's attack on immigration from all angles, legal and illegal, very much legal being part of it, he wants to slash that dramatically over the long term, it's something they support. >> it is not new. people have known this kind of sentiment was out there, particularly during the obama administration years, that was -- it was very prevalent. >> there was an attempt to marginalize it. it's not being marginalized now. but you have a large cable entity at night --

>> is that new though? fox news has always kind of dangled this carrot in front of racists. >> i don't think so. >> fair. >> it was certainly a part of it. there was that element that was driving the conversation, but yok it was as overt. >> it's overt. it certainly -- you could say it was subtle before. it is not subtle now. >> creative about euphemisms back then, but they've been emboldened to come out and say these things. they have a ground swelling of people echoing this throughout the community. i would agree with that. >> he has certainly drawn himself -- by the way, that was his first tweet about africa as president, that mentioned the word africa as president. thank you to my panel, lively discussion here. up ahead, something borrowed. -i've seen lots of homes helping new customers

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wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. well, in case you missed it, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. except in politics apparently. this week, the president tweeted, bill de blasio stole my campaign slogan. but so have a lot of other

politicians. a lot. like since they ever started it. and that's not the one he's really known for, is it? it's funny, though, i feel like i've heard that one before. >> make america great again. >> make america great again. >> make america great again. >> make america great again. straight from the ronald reagan campaign, it was on posters, it was on buttons. you know what? it's not the only borrowed phrase we found. we went all the way back to the 1840 campaign. and william henry harrison, who can forget tippecanoe, and c so -- >> about president calvin coolidge, his slogan of, no cool-usion. this one, when harry s. truman won the president, the richard nixon white house. they always seem to show him from the front, but never from the back. oh, yeah. so mr. president, not all ideas

are new ideas, just like tv, sometimes you get reruns u but if you're really bothered by it, maybe it's time to change your slogan. that's all for tonight, we'll be back tomorrow with more. "the beat" starts right now. good evening. >> good evening, chuck, i appreciate that history lesson. i'm surprised you didn't dig up who was the first president to say china the pway the president -- >> deadteddy roosevelt was knowr that. we're covering several developing stories tonight, ahead i'm going to talk to the wife of the trump aide who pleaded guilty in the mueller probe, her first interview since the michael cohen news broke. and democratic megadonor tom steyer joins me on his new ad campaign. "the washington post" reporting late today