>> i mean, people have called me a survivor. i would call myself lucky. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin, thanks for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown in new york at msnbc headquarters. 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west. here is ha's happening. a new report says trump allies are livid after a tribute to john mccain took aim at the president. >> no need to be great again because america was always great. >> how did ivanka trump and jared kushner wind up with an invitation? brett kavanaugh's hearing takes off this week. what could make or break the

nomination? oh canada. president trump threatened to leave canada out of a nafta deal. this morning, whether he is winning or losing this fight. reporting on the mood of the white house during senator mccain's funeral. the president going on a tweet storm before and after he left the white house to golf. at one point, hitting back at meghan mccain who took several swipes at her. the president focusing his grievances on the probes. we have more on president trump's threats to leave canada behind. >> how are things with the canadians? >> reporter: no deal, at least not yet as the trump administration re-negotiates nafta. the catch, canada. >> we will only sign a deal if it is a good deal with canada. again, no deal is better than a bad deal. >> reporter: officials hitting an impasse, failing to meet a

friday deadline set by the white house. president trump signaling he might leave canada out in the cold, tweeting, i love canada. but, they have taken advantage of our country many years. the president demanding concessions. >> if we don't make a deal with canada, it's just fine. we will see how it works out. >> reporter: u.s. officials are set to continue trade talks with counter parts this week, already reaching a tentative deal with mexico. the u.s./mexico deal calls for autocompanies to use more american made parts to avoid tariffs. good news for u.s. factory workers but could raise car prices. trade tensions between the u.s. and canada, flairing. home buildings aiming for the 20% tariff slapped on wood. >> you have the line of

qualification. tack on $8,000 or $10,000 to the home, you price them out of the market. >> reporter: replacing nafta requires congressional approval. since canada is the largest trading partner, some members of congress saying, no canada, no deal. dara? >> jeff, thank you so much for that report. let's bring in kevin the correspondent from bloomberg tv and jonathan allen for nbc news digital. great to have you here this morning. >> great to be here. >> jonathan, this is an extension of president trump and the world, right? even if it comes up with a trade deal with mexico, is he winning or losing these fights? >> look, if you talk to administration officials and trump supporters, they will tell you, you have to wait and see. the president has a grand strategy. there are some, you know, tactical ugliness in between, but eventually, it is all good for the united states.

if you talk to other analysts outside the white house, the trump orbit, outside the trump rallies, the view is the united states is doing more to alienate long time adversaries and does not seem to be consistent, in any way with past foreign policy. >> your thoughts or expectations on how this is going to factor in? >> i'm a policy dork, so i could talk nafta all day. what is interesting is the president doesn't get a nafta deal, there is a backstop in terms of a crux of a u.s./canada trade deal they have to go to. there is a foundation in place in terms of what that would mean. from a policy impact, how it affects farmers, lumber, dairy farmers. that affects upstate new york as well as battleground states like

michigan and wisconsin. politically, this is where it's interesting. i speak to a lot of progressives on the right. sherrod brown is a democrat up for re-election. they are known for nafta, not the popular streak within the republican party. a lot of interesting dynamics here. >> the president going on the tirade during senator mccain's funeral. then you have this powerful image of chief staff, john kelly, secretary mattis, standing side by side, consoling cindy mccain. trump's tight, lonely corner. what is going on here? what are you learning about the mood in the white house? >> the headline says it all. the president was extremely isolated in the political world yesterday. it's unusual for a president to be isolated.

his own staff, his daughter and son-in-law at the funeral, invited guests of lindsey graham. they have all shown mick caccai lack of a better term, a classy send off. president trump refusing to lower the flag beyond the prescribed amount of time this week, then reversing that decision and yesterday, through the funeral tweeting about a variety of issues, seemingly unable to take the idea he wasn't the center of attention for five minutes. >> police coe has con trig uters complaining about the tribute to senator john mccain and president trump tweeting, make america great again in caps. was this about the president being snubbed by mccain, despite their open feud? how did you read this? >> look, there's no question the

president and the late senator, john mccain, had a tense relationship, to put it mildly. i think when you look at the funeral proceedings within the past week, you know, what a great tribute to an american patriot. >> jonathan, you brought this up before because we are learning how jared and ivanka ended up at the service. ivanka was asked to attend by senator lindsey graham who would clear the invitation with john mccain's widow. jonathan, your interpretations there? >> ivanka trump has praised senator mccain this week, publicly, even though it put her at odds with her own father. i think, there doesn't appear to have been a great beef between senator mccain, ivanka trump and jared kushner. i think the complications of

having president trump there, versus members of his family there are tremendous. if you have a sitting president there, you have to give them a speaking role. nobody knows what the president will say. i think this was a way for the trump family to show respect, even as president trump is tweeting away. >> how about you? your thoughts on jared and ivanka attending? >> i think, quite frankly, it shows, as jonathan said, when you look at the political h hallmarks of what happened and the caliber of who attended the funeral, it speaks to such a great tribute to an american patriot. it feels awkward to dissect the politics of a funeral of such a great american. >> i agree with that. it is bigger than we can all imagine. >> totally agree. >> before i let you go,

tallahassee mayor will be on "meet the press" today. in his primary victory, amid backlash over his opponent, his offensive comments. what are you looking for as this race plays out? >> i think -- i think most floridians are looking to see which of these candidates is likely to guide the state best. from a political perspective, you have this character in congressman desantis, who is essentially donald trump light, trying to em late the president. gillham, on the left is strong in the democratic party. you are going to have a clash of ideas, contrast of policies. all that said, it's starting out with a discussion of the african-american democratic nominee's race. >> kevin, as this is going on,

president trump plans to travel to texas to campaign for senator cruz, in a race that keeps getting closer and closer. cruz has gone out of his way to give a bear hug to the president. is this a reason to be in such a tight race? >> what an absolute about face for ted cruz. do we remember 2016 when ted cruz was literally clashing heads with donald trump and now to see these political alliance that has developed, it shows how competitive of a race this is. this is part of the 40 days on the campaign trail the president has spent. but, the president going all in for senator ted cruz who is now in an increasingly tight race with the democratic challenger and what was once a republican

stronghold. >> jonathan, how do you see this? >> i think this is an appropriate opportunity to point to the terrapins who beat the university of texas. >> are you kidding me? >> i will say this, look, cruz and trump have similar bases. there's a lot of overlap there. i think they both see good opportunity and a bear hug to reinforce their political strongholds. >> we will continue the talk. this time, trump and canada. stay with us. everyone else, grab a cup of coffee. it's going to get better. what one democrat is calling a friday night massacre when it comes to brett kavanaugh supreme court nomination. that is up next. tt kavanaugh sue court nomination that is up next. -i've seen lots of homes helping new customers

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president's legal team is preparing a report designed to discredit mueller's conclusions in the russia investigation. the final preparations come a day after the original deadline trump attorney, rudy giuliani set for mueller, but decided to extend. >> you said there should be a september 1st deadline for mr. mueller to finish whatever he finishes. what happens if he doesn't? >> it's his problem. september 7th would be the date. the justice department has a rule to stay out of politically charged investigations within 60 days of the election. i hope he respects that. >> or what? >> nothing. otherwise, it affects how people look at the legitimacy of the investigation. is it political or a law enforcement investigation? >> joining me now is ashley. >> good to see you. >> you heard trump's personal lawyer say the justice depment has a rule law enforcement

should stay out of politically charged investigations 60 days within the election? >> this is not a written rule. it is an unwritten rule. it is not a law. there's no punishment. a lot of agencies have administrative rules internally. if you weak them, there could be an internal punishment. it's not that fine identity. this is a gentleman's agreement where they say it's better to stay out of elections, not have the investigation or indictment come down within 60 days of the election because of the fear it will look politically charged. there's no punishment. mueller is free to continue his investigation. perhaps he could not issue indictments, but he could continue to investigate.

>> he claims mueller's investigation is illegal. they dus put that. how do you view that matter? >> it's not illegal. he is special counsel. he is there to do this independent investigation. it is completely legal. i know the president tried, through many channels to try to influence mueller, get rid of him. it hasn't been successful because he is independent. >> president trump refused to discuss the topic of stormy daniels and cohen's payment to her before the election. he said he didn't want to get to it because it's been covered so much. yet, he continues to discuss the russian investigation. is stormy daniels bigger than the russian investigation and how can she end the trump presidency here? >> she may not be bigger, but may be a situation where it's likal capone.

you couldn't get him for what he was doing. they could get him for tax evasion. they get people for wire fraud. different types of transactions that happen or maybe they can't actually get the russia collusion. maybe there's no proof of that. but, they can proov something like stormy daniels and campaign finance issues. that's very important because anytime you are manipulating the campaign finance rules, you are trying to undermine our election system. a lot of people said, oh, campaign finance laws, if those are broken, they should be treated like a citation or traffic ticket. that's not true. those laws are on the book to make sure the election and government process is fair and ethical. a violation of that is just as serious as are the el gagss we have heard from russia. they are, potentially, going to be the demise. >> president trump sent a warning to the officials at the doj and fbi. take a listen.

>> our justice department and our fbi have to start doing their job and doing it right and doing it now. what's happening is a disgrace. at some point, i want to stay out, but at some point, if it doesn't straighten out properly, i want them to do their job. i will get involved and in there, if i have to. disgraceful. >> ashley, real quick, break this down for us, please. can he really get involved if he is being investigated? >> he can. he can get involved, but we have independent council. the threats are nothing more than an attempt to manipulate and try to stop the investigation and try smoke in mirrors. try and say they are doing something that is illegal and unethical when they are not. they are doing something he doesn't like and doesn't work with his agenda. he is fearful of what the results are.

he's trying to undermine anything that the investigation is going to uncover before it becomes public. undermine the investigation so the american public kodoubts th finding. they have doubt in the back of their head. >> great to have you here. >> thank you. >> thanks so much for your input. the off the record mystery is solved, maybe. where a reporter got president trump's comments on canada. dent trump's comments on canada here we go.

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now, to new reaction from the canadian journalist who published the off-the-record comments about canada, hitting back at the president for bloomberg. i said i wasn't going to say anything about my source for the quotes made to bloomberg. however, i don't want to be party to the president's smearing of ethical journalists.

so, i can say this. none of the bloomberg interviewers was my source. let's bring back kevin and jonathan. to that point, craig jordan, who is the bureau chief tweeted they have not published anything that was off the record. so, kevin, you work for bloomberg. what's going on here? >> i echo what my boss tweeted. i want to comment to our ethical journalism. there you have it. the canadian reporter saying it was not bloomberg. >> how did they get this information? what would another source possibly be? >> i would speculate entirely. let me echo what kevin said. i know the bloomberg organization and the journalist involved. they are very ethical and very good at their job. it's inconceivable any would

leak off the record comments he made to a reporter. if you are going to do that, publish it and get credit for the scoop. two, they would never do that. what happened is the president later went on twitter saying it's a good thing this nvr information is out there. it's good to look at the white house at not the source of the information. >> kevin, your thoughts on the latest washington poll. the poll showing not only a high disapproval rating for president trump, but also a majority of americans approve of the mueller investigation. what does this mean, being almost two months shy of the midterm elections? >> no one has an idea when the mueller probe is going to wrap up and there's no signal in terms of the conclusion of the mueller investigation. i would note the majority of republicans agree with the president when he tweets things like it's a witch hunt. it's an interesting divide right now, dara.

the majority of americans want to see this reach a natural conclusion. also, that means there's a good portion of the republican party who also want to see this reach a conclusion, a natural conclusion, at that. >> jonathan, your thoughts on this? >> i think that you have a country that is divided pretty neatly on most subjects between the president and people who disagree with the president. but you see some crossover in polling. i think, you know, the president is going to need to expand his coalition to be able to sustain the things that he's doing. >> real quick, any prediction on when this will end? >> before -- i actually think it will go beyond the midterms. >> john than? >> i agree with that. >> points well taken. great to have you on. enjoy your holiday weekend. that will do it for me, i'm dara brown. thank you for watching.

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