take a quick look at the dow before the close. it's been steady all morning ever since announcement of that deal with mexico about a renegotiation, if you will, nafta closing 200 points higher. i'll see you 10:00 p.m. eastern for the last word. "deadline white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. /s >> hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. we come on the air with breaking news. the white house lowering its flag to half staff in memory of john mccain. reversing a decision made earlier today that landed the president in hot water from the right and the left. we are expecting a statement any minute from the white house with more details on that decision. it all comes after donald trump had seemed to double down on his own unique brand of smallness with multiple news organizations chronicling his pettiness and pech lance calling his conduct, quote, very small. "the new york times" reporting earlier, quote, the president

did not make even the most cursory public show of respect on sunday for mr. mccain against whom he had continued to indulge a personal grievance. even as it was apparent that the republican -- arizona republican was losing his battle with brain cancer. the president spent much of his day golfing and attacking his usual enemies on twitter. it's telling that john mccain chose two of his former political rivals to eulogize him. george w. bush with whom he duked it out in the gop primary in 2000 and barack obama who he faced in the 2008 presidential campaign. mccain's choice creates a contrast so stark it takes one's breath away. donald trump was never even a political rival of mccain's. trump simply trolled the one-time prisoner of war claiming he didn't like p.o.w.s who didn't get captured. that pettiness is ongoing. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders, chief of staff john kelly and other white house aides advocated for an official statement that gave the

decorated vietnam war p.o.w. plaud it for his military and senate service and called him a hero. but trump told aides he wanted to post a brief tweet instead. and the statement praising mccain's life was never released. the condemnation has been swift. former trump legal advisor mark corallo is saying it's atrocious at a time like this you would expect more of an american president when you're talking about the passing of a true american hero. gop strategist stewart stevens tweeted, if you were the staffers who drafted this and your boss stops it, how do you live with yourself if you don't resign? do you not realize who he is becomes who you are? senator mccain's long-time advisor rick davis today read a statement from senator mccain with an unsubtle observation about the political moment in which senator mccain passed. >> we weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rival risk that have sewn

resentment, hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. we weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down. when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been. we are 325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals. we argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our rockus public debates. but we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. if only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times. we will come through them stronger than before. we always do.

>> we had a better chance of that with him here. joining us to discuss today's extraordinary developments, general david petraeus, former director of the cia and former head of u.s. central command who led our forces in iraq and afghanistan. he knew john mccain well. john mccain said of you the greatest general of your generation. i don't want to make you cry yet. also joining us eddie glaude, princeton professor and msnbc contributor. alicia menendez for bustle and co-host of pbs's amanpour and company. rick wilson, veteran republican strategist and author of the book everything trump touches dies. also joining us stewart stevens, veteran republican strategist we already kwoeftquoted and daily columnist. and ashley parker. just before we came on the air, donald trump, bending to pressure not just in this country, but from around the world, to honor an american hero. >> yeah, and not just from this country and around the world, but even from his own staff.

you know, there's people in the white house who wanted him, as my colleague josh reported, to put out a statement which i have to stress is a fairly routine statement, pradsing the life of the late senator, calling him a hero, acknowledging his military service. this was going on when it became clear that senator mccain was not going to win that final battle with cancer. the president's response, there were a number of people in the white house who were disgusted and upset and dismayed. and so i think in addition to all that public pressure there was also some private pressure as well. >> i talked to a friend of the president's who said the actions of the president over the weekend from saturday night through this morning were very small, very, very small. and general petraeus, that is perhaps the starkest contrast between the current president and the man that we've all spent most of the last 48 hours honoring. >> well, first of all, it's

reassuring, heartening, i think, that this action has taken place. there are times to rise above differences and needless to say this is one of those. but, no, we're talking about a man who really was a giant in so many respects who spoke with such moral authority on a number of different topics. twice, of course, a candidate for the presidency who famously said he would rather lose an election than lose a war. he lost that election, but his support for the surge enabled it to succeed and it actually put his opponent, when he became the president, in a much better position as a result of that campaign. >> we were talking about that before. in 2012, president obama was able to essentially run on the su successes in iraq in large part because of policies you and senator mccain advocated. let me read this white house statement that you referenced. from a statement from the president we got just as we came on the air, despite our

differences on policy and politics, i respect senator john mccain and will fly the flag at half staff till the day of his internment. at the united states capital this friday, at the request of the mccain family, i have also authorized military transportation of senator mccain's remains from arizona to washington d.c., military paul bearers and band support and horse and cash and transport during the service at the united states naval academy. finally i've asked general john kelly, secretary james mattis and ambassador john bolton to represent my administration and the service of rick wilson. >> i wish this had been delivered the first moment we had the news. this is papering over something that is going to be a wound that mccain family will have to face for a long time. it's a shame that we had to have a public outcry just short of pitch forks and torches in front

of the white house to get donald trump to grudgingly slowly, you know, fighting like a toddler every step of the way to do the right thing here. i'm reading this and it's a fair fairly anodine statement. this is not from donald trump's heart. this is not a man who felt any sense of regret. he wanted the pain of the public censure and outcry to end. >> stewart stevens, there is not a lot of example of staff prevailing. this is a rare one. i read your tweet in the lead. this is the thing that haunts me about the trump's presidency. he laid himself bare in the charlottesville tape. after charlottesville nobody quit, after [ bleep ] hole countries nop quit. after upon disgrace upon disgrace, after an aide call you made reference to the fact john mccain would die soon, nobody was fired. this seems as rick wilson says, like a band aid on a stab wound. >> yeah, it's absolutely perplexing to me why staffers

don't realize that it reflects on them. moo fa my father was an fbi agent when they rounded up asian americans he did it for a day and he resigned. one of his lessons to me is you can always say no. and i think that is an important lesson for the staff. you don't have to do this. you're going to look back on it and you're either going to be proud of it or you're going to regret it. i think the soul of america resonates with john mccain and not where donald trump is now. and it's i think something that really is a stark choice that the country has to make and individual has to make and certainly the republican party has to make. >> alicia, we've had this conversation. you've been here on some of these breaking news days. if we have a focus as a show, it's where the conduct is so -- the departure from the norm is so dramatic, so grave, that it's worth stopping for a minute. jennifer rubin writes this. no one in the white house feels compelled to leave after a

grotesque display of uncivility and heartlessness. and you wonder why nobody has respect for white house staff nor should they get a pass when their time in the white house ends. i agree with general petraeus. we applaud them for doing the right thing in the end, but the process really does justify examination. >> it does, because on one hand i'm loathed to talk about this because i think these actions prove that our president wanted to make himself the center piece of a story that was not about him at all. on the other hand, i'm glad that you bring it up because otherwise the type of behavior becomes increasingly normalized. and i think it's why that beautiful tribute that senator mccain wrote before he passed resonated with so many people, which is at the core of his work was service, and he came back to that idea. service, however imperfect, was what drove him. and that is not what is driving this white housing. it is not what is driving this president. and it is also hard to believe it is what is driving the staff. >> general petraeus, i want to get to you in one more point and we're going to take a peek and

listen to senator mcconnell who is on the floor now honoring senator mccain, his colleague. the extraordinary thing about being? senator mccain's orbit was that he had your back. he had my back when i was attacked by his own running mate. he had your back at some of the lowest points in your career, and highest. he had on chris christie's back. he said on abc news, after his troubles mccain was the first person on the phone. mccain had the country's back when he selected you to speak at annapolis. and mccain had the country's back when he declared before his death that he did not want mr. trump to take part in his funeral, a decision that many render the president as a virtual pariah as he is eulogized by other presidents and luminaries like yourself, a dedicated public servant. he didn't leave anything unsaid. >> no, he didn't. he was a man who had the full range of emotions, in fact. and i think you and i and others saw all of those. at the end of the day, the

motivation there was always the greater good. but no one had the backs of america's new greatest generation, those who fought the wars of the post th9/11 era tha he did. no one did more to make sure they had what was needed to prevail on the battle field. no one did more than he did at the outset of the surge and even my own confirmation hearing, the very, very tough six or eight months until the results were very, very clear, just to keep the senate together. i think there was a point at which the support was literally one vote and he and the other members of the three amigos as i coin them, senators lieberman and graham who were out there always. he didn't just have our back figuratively, he had it literally. he was out there with us on every single congressional recess, all three of them were. and we experienced some very wonderful moments and some

pretty low moments as well. you know, there is a saying in washington, if you want a friend, get a dog. i think -- i used to say if you want a real friend, get john mccain. by the way, he also brings the dog. >> he brings the dogs, he brings the bats. if you visit sedona, there are all sorts of critters there. i want to know, i want to understand from you if the surge would have happened which sort of indisputable now, that that turned the oura round. it wasn't a sure thing. i want to talk to you about that more. i want to play senator mcconnell who is on the floor and eddie glaude, i want to hear your thoughts. >> the passion john brought to his work was unsurpassed in this body. in more than 30 years as a senator, he never failed to marshal a razor sharp wit, a big heart, and, of course, a fiery spirit. when john saw an issue the same

way you did, you knew you had just found your most stalwart ally. you would thank your lucky stars. because when you found yourself on the other side of that table, as i think all of us learned, you were in for a different kind of unforgettable experience. either way, serving alongside john was never a dull affair. >> i will add that working for john mccain was never dull. and the treat in that was that you always knew where you stood. you were never going to walk out of his suite and worry he was going to roll his eyes to some other staffer and say, oh, she said -- he gave it to you straight. he gave it to you right away. usually called you right on your cell phone before you had a minute to -- and he was on all of our cell phones. he was so present. he was so in touch. there was such an intimacy when you were in john mccain's inner circle. >> you know, i've been thinking about this for a while, since the announcement of his death.

i disagreed with almost every bit of john mccain's politics, but i found him a principled politician, a principled statesman. and i think a lot of the grief in the country today around senator mccain's death stands as a proxy of what we actually want and desire. so john mccain's career over and against the reality of the petty small man who occupies the white house, so the grief is actually layered with a longing that something has disappeared, that something we need, that we're losing giants and we're replacing them with small men and women, selfish, greedy, self-absorbed people. so even though i disagree with him on probably everything, i recognize something that's lost, something that has been

irrevokably lost. in emmerson representative men, he gives them up as who they are and what they contributed. what was important about them is they reveal something in us. great men and women make even greater men and women possible. so as we long for -- as we long and we grieve, we're actually wondering whether or not the kind of man that senator mccain was is possible now in the age of trump. >> that is such a good point. he was also the kind of man who could admit when he crude up. let me tell you, that is a rare -- that is a unicorn in american politics. it makes what happened today with lowering flags again all the more extraordinary. let's listen to john mccain with chris wallace talking about a mistake he made. >> when i do things for politically expediency, which i have from time to time, it's always turned out poorly. >> give me an example since you bring it up.

what have you done for political expediency? >> i went to south carolina and said the flag flying over the state capital which was a confederate flag, that i shouldn't be involved in it, it was a state issue, it was an act of cowardice. >> this will alienate a certain voting block and i lost anyway. >> ashley parker, let me ask you, there must be something recognizable about john mccain about donald trump. they spar. the patriotism that john mccain practiced is unrecognizable in donald trump in trumpism. >> that's exactly right. it's not just this ongoing feud between the two men that is sort of led to this point of bad blood, but it's twofold. one is that president trump can't stand not being the center of attention, can't stand not being, you know, the center of

adulation. another is that many of these traits being lauded and celebrated and touted in senator john mccain are traits that president trump notably often does not exhibit. and so even in that silence, it is a very pointed contrast and one that is not particularly flattering to this president. and so this whole week is going to be very difficult for him, frankly. we've seen it in his behavior so far. and if i were a betting person in covering president trump, i am not a betting person, but i would bet we would see a bit of it going forward overall all o these funerals and celebrations of senator mccain's life. >> if you bet, i'm going to bet with you. you're as good of a trump watch eras anybody. general petraeus, i want to ask you to pull the thread ashley raises. the reason it is difficult for him is that donald trump doesn't recognize what animates john mccain because there's no capacity to relate to it. i mean, john mccain is someone,

as you said at the top of the show, who would rather lose an election than lose a war. donald trump is someone who is at open war with the intelligence community. he just stripped the security clearance from john brennan. you signed a letter in defense of john brennan. how dangerous is the treading on national security nor an american president right now? >> well, it's concerning, but i would point out, i think, that the institutions are very strong and very robust. >> really? rod rosenstein doesn't know if he has a job from day to day. >> you may look at the department of justice differently, but the institutions with which i have experience, the military and the intelligence community, very professional. and there are obviously no political appointees in the military ranks. obviously there are in the secretary of defense office and so forth. but in the intelligence community, in the cia, there is only one political appointee, the director of the cia who right now is a professional.

these are organizations that keep their head down, that tell truth to power, that are not going to shrink from that. but they're going to keep on doing their job. and i have enormous confidence in each of those institutions. again, i'll leave it to others when it comes to the department of justice and the challenges that they face right now. >> far be it from me to question your assessment, but does it give you any pause to see people who are as familiar as you are with those agencies like general hayden, like john brennan, like george ten en, who also signed that letter really sounding the alarm and feeling it is almost unamerican to have a president disparage some of those institutions that have always sort of been on the other side of the red line of political discourse? >> well, we signed the letter. it should be read very carefully because a number of us, george and i and others have not been ones who have been on domestic issues that we tend to focus on the areas that we know. and what struck us in this case

and what galvanized all of us was that a seeming attempt to, number one, to stifle the freedom of speech -- >> right. >> i was criticized very, very many times in uniform and so forth. and after one particular case where a full-page ad was taken out against me, and the biggest day of testimony ever, the six-mo mark of the surge, the next day i was asked how i felt when that. i feel very proud to have defended the right of others to exercise free speech even if it means criticizing me. i obviously didn't applaud it. again, is that's the way i feel about it in general. someone would seem to want to impede that or to intimidate others, that was what bothered us and that's what led us to do that. again, whether or not all the signers agreed with what john brennan has said or profile or what have you -- in fact, it said dash-dash and not all do. we all were united in that particular issue.

and that's, i think, what mattered there. again, i have 37 years in one of them and the head of the other. i think these institutions are very strong and i think they will very much endure. >> i want to tell our viewers i remember that day. there was an ad, i believe it was paid for by move on.org. they called you general betray us. that was 2006? >> 2007. it was the six-month mark of the surge. ambassador crofton and i were going to testify before the house and armed services and foreign relations committees. >> i guess the distinction i would draw between that which was inexcusable, i believe i was in the white house at the time. i remember that. that at the time crossed a red line. the attacks are now coming from an american president. is there anything in the attacks on the justice -- general hayden calls them the evidence-based sciences, the media, the justice

department, the intelligence community, and science. is there anything, as someone who has served our country and has worked in the -- has run these agencies that gives you pause about his skepticism about evidence-based practice s? >> oh, this gives me pause without question. i mean, fagts are facts. >> they are. rudy doesn't think so. >> again, so there's some degree of difference here obviously. but you were asking me about the strength of the institutions. and again, i think these are very, very strong institutions. with centuries of history and tradition and so forth. we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and so forth and, therefore, stand very tall. and by the way, many will say that about the senate standing on the shoulders of john mccain. you know, i might want to point out here, a lot of people i think are already saying he is the irreplaceable man and so on. and there is much to this. i mean, you can't look out there and see another senator mccain right now.

but i think he would be the first to say that there will be others. and it may be the crop of, again, america's new greatest generation members, these young men and women who volunteered at a time of war and served our country, whether or not the country agreed with the policies, these individuals are extraordinary. and now they are seeking to continue their service, many of them now looking at politics for the first time. >> do you agree with john mccain's assessment the helsinki was a tragic mistake? >> there are a lot of descriptions for it. >> that was john mccain's. >> there were others. >> do you agree with that one? >> sure. >> stewart stevens, let me bring you in on this. john mccain didn't mince words, he didn't parse, he didn't dance. when donald trump stood shoulder to shoulder with vladimir putin and in response to a question from jonathan lemire from the associated press, he basically sided with the assessment, not

from the american intelligence community which i hope survives as well as general petraeus predicts it will, but it was a blow. senator coats didn't know he was going to say that. d.n.i. coats didn't know he was going to say that he since said he didn't think the one on one meeting that went down in helsinki went down -- he wouldn't have recommended it. are you in agreement these constitutions will endure? >> general petraeus is in a good position -- >> it's not. >> there is another man right above you right now. >> the record of those -- >> we can be less optimistic of all that's available to you and me. >> i will say this. i am terribly unoptimistic about the republican party's future at the moment. i find that the party that we joined, the party that believed in certain principles -- character counts, strong on

russia, national debt, personal responsibility -- it wasn't like we had some sort of unique grasp of these issues, but it's what we aspire to, it's what we wanted to be. i just see those like in that moment in helsinki being completely turned on its head. and i don't really know how you unsee these things or unsay these things. but i hope i'm wrong. >> all right. let me reset on the breaking news for our viewers. a stunning release from the white house just as we were coming on the air, president releasing a statement that reads, quote, despite our differences on policy and politics, i respect senator john mccain's service to our country and, in his honor, i have signed a proclamation to fly the flag of the united states at half-staff until the day of his interment. ashley parker, are you getting any reporting from where you're sitting, your perch how this tick-tock went down? he was in front of reporters, i watched the incredibly awkward

call with the mexican president where they renamed nafta. not sure what's behind that. he had opportunities to make this reversal at different points of the day. he did so just before 4:00 p.m. >> that's right. i think we'll find out or i'll find out a little more later when i get off set. he had all these opportunities, it was not just nafta. he was stone facing, ignoring calls about john mccain to walk any of his previous statements back. the only thing i can add is he was under a lot of pressure from people in his white house. the president is also someone who is swayed by news coverage, who watches cable news, who is taking in all these images we know, was not happy about the way senator mccain was being lionized. the mood in the white house was described as one of therapy, of aides not quite nothing, some aides not quite nothing what to do. so i do imagine there was some

internal pressure with the combination of the public pressure that he values most, which is cable news, that eventually made him to make this fairly small concession. >> i did watch some fox news on saturday night and even his favorite network fox news celebrated american hero john mccain. that must have driven him mad, mad, mad. general david petraeus, thank you so much. it's a pleasure to have you here. please come back. >> pleasure to be here. >> ashley packer and steven, thank you soar spending some of the hour with us. after the break bridget nasoing f -- bracing forbad news. tough love for the president from one of his favorite tv lawyers. get ready for the investigations, one certainly coming for the white house if democrats regain control of the house in november. all those stories coming up.

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if all of last week's hectic

developments surrounding the russia investigation amounted to a fast-paced plot heavy season finale in the donald trump reality show, then today -- today we start a new season, and it seems cracks are starting to show in the foundation. the sheer number of legal challenges this administration is dealing with threatens a barrier of personal and professional secrecy. donald trump has long enjoyed. and according to the washington post, quote, the result has been a moment in which trump seems politically wounded as friends turn embarrassing revelations about affairs and his charity trickle out uncontained. in coming months it could force trump's company to open its books about foreign government customers or compel the president to testify about his relationships with women. the myth of trump is now unraveling, said barbara reese, a trump organization executive from 1978 to 1996. he's becoming more obvious and people are starting to know what he's like and what he's doing. joining us now, harry

litman, former uss attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general. hatt eddie, alicia and rick are still here. one of the staunch defenders someone will have to explain to me some day, are worrying about the cases at sdny. why would that be? >> well, s.d.n.y. in general, the cohen investigation really potentially implicates three separate conspiracies that could come to the president's door and cohen, at least lanny davis has indicated would. first is, of course, the very serious fraud and criminal conspiracy to influence the campaign that cohen pleaded to last week. second is the potential of the russia meeting, the so-called collusion in june and before,

and cohen has suggested he knows about that. and then even potentially the hacking conspiracy, cohen is draw in. and one quick final point is the two immunities to the cfo and to david pecker are in connection with the cohen probe, but i think it's very likely that the prosecutors will have plumbed the depths of what those two men know and it figures to be quite a lot. >> when you say plum the depths, i don't know whether to close my eyes, close my ears or just get a sensor. let's watch alan dershowitz along the lines of what you're saying, harry. >> if i were trump's lawyers, i'd be focusing all of my defense efforts on the southern district and let the mueller probe go. i think people who support president trump ought to hope that the businesses were conducted entirely aboveboard. or if there are minor violations, there are corporate violations, not personal violations, but the president has to be focused on this,

concerned about this, and the legal strategy has to be looking at the southern district more than looking at the mueller investigation because the defenses to the mueller investigation are constitutional in nature and the president can't be indicted. but the investigations in new york don't have the same kind of constitutional defenses. >> all right. we've been talking, rick, about betting. i would bet just about anything there is zero chance that everything in the businesses were done aboveboard. >> imagine that, a guy in the casino business, in the real estate business with the russian ands before that, the real estate business with the mob when they built his buildings. i can't imagine, surely all on the up and up. how could i man with donald trump's sterling moral character just be engaged in anything shady at all? it would be shocking, or not at all if anybody -- >> dershowitz is someone donald trump listens to and dershowitz is basically saying in the southern district of new york, which donald trump has never called a witch-hunt, you're screwed. >> right. and, look, the stuff in the southern district and the stuff in new york state with the

foundation, those come to the very, very heart of donald trump's kryptonite, which is his taxes and his finances. and when those things start to roll out, people are going to learn the reality tv character they thought they saw on the apprentice for 14 years, rich, successful, good negotiator, good judge of people, management. all that, they're going to realize that reality tv character is built on a pyramid of b.s. and lies and bad bank loans. this guy is the flop sweat rolling off of donald trump right now in the southern district is tee nor must. >> go ahead. >> i think one of the challenges of getting him to focus on the southern district aside from the general challenges which is he built the message on the mueller case a witch-hunt and where is collusion. i don't know there is a parallel message in the case of what's happening in the southern district. >> it's a great point, harry. i want you to pick sks up up on. i also want to ask you, the

plays they haven't rolled out yet that i understand to be coming in the mueller probe are to continue to smear robert mueller, a war hero and a 13-year veteran as fbi director who served democratic and republican presidents, to continue to smear his investigators who are all lifelong career prosecutors and investigators, and to at some point possibly exert executive privilege when they -- now that they've shifted legal strategies, the old lawyers ty cobb and john dowd are out, emmet flood and rudy giuliani say, no, no, no, no more cooperation. you're getting too close to something. what is the likelihood that any of those tools that they get to deploy will do them any good in the southern district of new york? >> right. well, the first two, of course, as you say are continuations, old hat and really basically just rhetorical. and i think there is a real feeling that, in fact, their

effectiveness is waning especially in the wake of the manafort conviction, the cohen plea, the weisselberg and pecker immunity. so, those two, i think -- it and there is some polling to suggest -- are beginning to wane. executive privilege, very tough. first of all, they've already waived quite a bit. but that would essentially be the nixon case. that was technically about executive privilege. and i think it's going to be a hard row to hoe. they've been behind the curve and many of the things they might have done earlier are potentially foreclosed. the big question will be if mueller subpoenas, will they be able to launch a vigorous defense. my best guess is no. if he does subpoena him, it will succeed. >> harry, let me hit you with one more.

i don't often quote roger stone as an expert, but this might be something he nodes a little bit about. he's kboeted as saying, based on excellent sourcing, he predicts the special counsel is going to charge donald trump, jr., with lying to the fbi. notice they're not charging him for having an illegal meeting with the russian at trump tower because there's nothing illegal about that meeting, blah, blah, blah. that's the old collusion ain't illegal excuse until it is. but what do you make of the fact that roger stone is foreshadowing an indictment of donald trump, jr., for lying to the fbi? >> well, not a lot specifically that is coming from stone, but it's a really important point. trump junior has been a silent figure for a long time. yet he's obviously implicated. my best guess, in fact, is he's a target and his lawyer has told mueller that he would take the 5th amendment and mueller could indict him and probably will, but mueller knows when that happens, they are really at a

real declaration of war, and trump will pull out all stops, including firings, et cetera. so trump junior seems to have been implicated especially in the russia meeting and before this is all over, i think he will be indicted, but it will be near the end of mueller's moves because it will occasion so much, so much desperate response from trump personally. >> that's a good analysis. harry, thank you so much for spending time with us. when we come back, it's a heck of a way to acknowledge you haven't been degree your job. new reporting republicans themselves are keeping track of all the scandals surrounding the trump administration. scandals democrats will certainly start looking into if they win the house. ♪

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way around house gop circles lists investigation requests that congressional democrats have already made and will likely launch if they flip the house. jonathan swan reports, quote, the spreadsheet which i'm told originated in a senior house republican office catalogs more than 100 formal requests from house democrats spanning nearly every committee. it includes requests for administration officials to be grilled by committee staff, requests for hearings to obtain sworn testimony, efforts to seize communications about controversial policies and personnel decisions, and subpoena threats. these demands would turn the trump white house into a 24/7 legal defense operation. and these are just some of those investigations which run the gamut from the president's tax returns, dealings with russia, jim comey's firing to the discussion of classified information at mar-a-lago, the travel ban, the family separation policy, and the response to hurricane maria that hit puerto rico last year.

eddie glaude, i worked in a white house when congressman waxman had this power. i turned over my e-mails, once around the enron scandal, once around the energy task force, once around valerie plame. that was waxman's committee. it is life changing for the most button down white house with norms and procedures and controls. it seems like it could be the true unraveling of the trump circus. >> especially combined with what's happening in the courts already. >> correct. >> right? and so -- >> these people already have lawyers. that's a great point. >> they already have lawyers. but what's interesting here is that what they've just laid out is, is congress doing its job? >> the democrats. >> not just the democrats, the body, the institution doing its job. we've been -- many of us have been longing for congress to exercise its power, right? and so in this instance we have -- although they may be scared about the politics and what it might mean for the white house and how it might function,

for some of us, the actual execution of what they're supposed to be doing when it comes to hurricane maria, when it comes to family separation, when it comes to trump's tax policies, when it comes to russia, it seems to me that if the house republicans took their constitutional duties seriously, many of them would already be doing this. >> and you know, rick, what's so crazy is everything eddie just listed, lives were at stake. >> sure. >> the hurricane in puerto rico, people died. the family separation policy, children's lives and their parents lives ruined forever. so these aren't investigations -- these aren't gotcha investigations. these aren't going to be witch hunts. these are life and death matters where the republicans were awol. >> they abandoned and abrogated their entire constitutional responsibility as aiko equal branch of government. they're not junior managers at a donald trump golf club. they have chosen not to uphold the constitution. >> why? >> i spoke to a leadership staff

this morning. they're freaking out because this story got out. they're afraid the president is going to see this story and understand how much they know about what happens' going on and it will set off another layer of trump's paranoia and his loyalty checking and all this stuff. these things are coming. these investigations will come. and if they don't understand that their silence on these things, their inaction on them and their deliberate move to allow this president to run roughshod over the law brought on the electoral problems they're about to have, i can't help them any more. they don't have a grip on reality at that point. >> i also just wonder, though, the choice it sets out for democrats, which is if they win back the house and they are able to actually initiate these investigations, what do they prioritize? there are 14u7b things you c there are 100 things you can prioritize. >> go with the ones where people died. >> go after hurricane response, or the salacious things. that will be a real choice.

>> if you gave trey gowdy truth serum he'd tell you to go after the ones where people died. what do you think? if republicans -- if the democrats do a good and ernest effort to understand the response to -- and i have to say, i worked in the bush white house for katrina. there were a lot of investigations into -- a lot of unraveling for what went wrong and people did die. it's deadly serious. it is not suited for the political shenanigans that seem to be the infection that has sickened the entire republican caucus. >> i think part of it for the democrats when they do this, they need to have a professional steady tone about it. >> yeah. >> it can't be, aha-ha-ha, we're in power. it needs to be methodical. this is an administration that put itself above the law and does things that directly harm the lives of americans. >> right. >> if they can do that in a way that's methodical, it doesn't just look like a circus, it doesn't look like -- hillary e-mail panic. >> and it doesn't look like revenge. >> it looks like they're

actually governing which right now the republican party does not look like they're governing. mr. trump, can we wash your car? >> they're green lighting attacks on the justice department. real quick. >> they don't look like they're governing. >> we're so far away -- >> how cynical. >> sad republicans. we settled for something that looked better. >> at the end of the day, really quickly, the washington post piece that you opened up with, there is nothing to be revealed about who donald trump is that we don't already know. >> right. >> to quote the late denny great, we no who they are, we know who he is. the people already supporting donald trump will continue to support donald trump and the people whoer resisting him will continue to resist him. that's the place we're in right now. >> that's where we are. when we come back, the president's latest attempt at distraction and why it didn't exactly go as planned. operator? dear foremothers, your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands... commanded armies...

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we look very much forward to it. and i believe the president is on the phone. enrique? you can hook him up. tell me when. it's a big thing. >> the internet is an amazing

place, i spend too much time there. that was said to the veep closing credits music. that was real announcing a new trade deal with mexico which ended up being an announcement about nothing. a perfect microcosm of how this bhous -- white house operates. >> i like to call this the united states/mexico trade agreement. i think nafta has a lot of bad connotations for the united states because it was a ripoff. >> so, rick, i watched this to see what we were doing to nafta. he didn't do anything to nafta. we just gave it a new name. if canada joins, i think the white house's line is we need a new name. >> he fettishized nafta as this horrible weird thing in his head. >> and voters bought it. it worked. >> even though every economist is like this is an awesome tri-lateral agreement. it has done an amazing thing for all three economies. he hates it with the fire of a million suns because he's an

economic idiot and he's backward in this. this is from what i read so far a rebrand with no substantive changes to speak of. >> he didn't change nafta, don't worry. >> but it may convince his followers that he's fundamentally torn it up and now we're doing great and the wall is stopping everyone from coming. >> and pena nieto wanted to get this out before november. >> when i work in the white house, but our greatest political fear was to be sort of tainted as incompetent. again, full disclosure, there were plenty of opportunities to do that. this was incompetence and idiocy as a stage press event and that i've never seen. >> and we're laughing about it because we're trying to maintain our sanity in these times. we all recognize that the same dysfunction that went into that call went into something as critical as the 235family separation policy, still

hundreds separated. when we talk about this, the reason that it matters is because it's actually impacting people's lives. the phone call is a funny example of it. >> it's like a gumbo of ignorance, malice and stupidity all at once. >> what can go wrong? but so much has gone wrong. there are now lives at stake. i wonder -- this is important because the first week of the trump presidency there was a story i think in "the washington post" about how they couldn't turn the lights on. they still can't use the phones. why does that matter? because i believe in any white house if you can't get the small things right, it's very, very rare that you're getting the big things right. >> and it projects out to the world and particularly to our children that are growing up that mediocrity can lead to you occupying the -- >> that's a terrifying point at the mommies at the table and the daddies. we have to sneak in our last break. we'll be right back. k. we'll be right back.

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and rick. rick's new book is awesome. whatever you're doing, stop, download or get in a car and go buy it. it's called "everything trump touches dies." that does it for our hour. "mtp daily" starts right now with katy tur in for chuck todd. >> i know it's been a hard day for you, but the show has been really heartfelt. if it's monday, as senator mccain said, what you fight for is the real test. good evening, i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd. welcome to "mtp daily." we begin tonight's show with a little straight talk, as the nation mourns the loss of senator john mccain. the bipartisan truth-seeking country first principled brand of republican politics that john mccain embodied