richard lui live. we will start with barack obama back in the political spotlight giving his second speech in as many days to boost democrats running in the november mid-terms. campaigning for senate congressional candidates, obama urged both parties to unite the country. >> we are in a challenging moment. because when you look at the ark of american history, there has always been a push and pull

between those who want to go forward and those who want to look back. between those who want to divide and those who are seeking to bring people together. between those who promote a politics of hope and those who exploit the politics of fear. i want to reach out to some republicans who kind of harken back to the values of a guy named abraham lincoln, the first republican president. and who say to themselves, i don't recognize what's going on in washington right now. that's not what i believe. that's not who we are. if we don't step up, things can get worse. >> obama was less pointed in his criticism of president trump and the republican party today than he was yesterday in illinois.

let's bring in the research fellow at the hoover institution and chief policy adviser to the romney campaign. msnbc columnist for the daily beast. political reporter, the "los angeles times" national correspondent. does he get your vote. he wants to unite republicans. >> he doesn't get my vote, but the idea is to speak to independent and moderate voters in a part of the country like orange county where they can make a vote. the idea was to mobilize the voters. they didn't vote in mid-term elections. as a campaign speech, not all that effective, but as rhetoric, interesting. >> does the obama of old work in the day of new? >> he is more a candidate of the future, the ex-president of the future than donald trump. the country and the world are moving ultimately in obama's

direction. i was surprised you didn't consider it more persuasive and the republican party is divided between mccain republicans who are a smaller group and banana republicans. trump supporter who is don't believe in the rule of law. don't believe in decency and don't believe in respect and are following a demagogue and a bigot. republicans are facing a choice. am i a mccain republican or a banana republican. obama is trying to peel off some of the mccain republicans to check donald trump. i think he has a potential to do that because a lot of republicans i know are fed up. this is not about tax cuts or a position on issues, but the future of our democracy. >> you can build on that or not. you can peel away at it. i will go to you on this.

we were one week ago talking about mccain. it was a week of remembering what he meant to the republican party and to the country. is this maybe part of why president obama and his message in the way it is today is what it is? >> maybe. i think when you look at barack obama on the campaign trail it's important to think of how the president has done when he has a foil. in 2016 it was a clear foil and throughout his presidency he had several. with lulls, he goes after the media because we are the ones who are always here. being become on the campaign trail, his base is energized against. someone who is going to go out and draw contrasting inside with what the trump administration stands for in washington. certainly it is a decision for republicans to make, but republican candidates in a lot of these swing states that i'm covering are hoping that they get the trump base to turn out for them.

i don't get the sense that republican candidates are caring too much about how do we pick up the moderates in our party. it's a bear hug of trump. that's where obama could be persuasive to somebody who voted in 2016 for president trump because they didn't like hillary, but the dichotomy is different. >> how does president obama help democrats and as ali was saying, how does he help republicans, trump republicans specifically. >> he fires up the base. he's talking to young people and getting out there and will make a number of stops on the campaign trail. it's about getting people this message of hopefulness and turning out to vote. democrats have to turn out to flip the house and the senate. he is doing it in california where there are key races for congress in southern california. it's really about driving up that base ahead of november. >> i want to move into what was a very busy week here with

criticisms of the white house, insiders speak, woodward's book right and a senior official here. we won't get into who you think it might be, but what does it do to the support of this pedestrian and how does it empower voter who is may not have voted before? >> i would say when you think about most republican voters, they look at this and shrug. i don't see there being a huge impact. a lot of this is baked into the cake. people assume that trump is going to run a different kind of white house. does this impact the moderate and independent voters that could turn out to vote in the mid-term election? history suggests it's about bases turning out, but if you believe this year is different, certainly this news we heard from the a nonce muss op-ed and woodward book could influence. the question has always been, what shoes have to drop for republican opinion to change?

so far we have seen a lot of ghastly stuff, but nothing has changed. >> you are not hearing anything. you are also an adviser related to what is happening in 2018. nobody is shrugging their shoulders a little bit about what they heard? >> in fact if you look at states like north dakota and montana. two states the president visited last week. those states are hugging donald trump more tightly because donald trump is doing well in those states and that's their pathway to victory. >> it will take a thumping andy is lacking and nothing will happen in the within party before the mid-terms. if trump holds the house, forget about it. it makes everything we have seen look like patty cake, he has been so emboldened. obama is trying to say stop wringing your hands over this. start ringing door bells. there is a lot of people as obama said in the speech last

night, they are hash tagging and tweeting and liking and bingeing. but they are not walk the blocks in the flipable districts in their states. unless they do and they have to start now because this is when they identify the anti-trump voter who is go for the democratic candidates. unless they do that now, a larger number of volunteers is very possible that the republicans will hold the house because they have been better in mid-term elections in the last 10 years. >> in a week of two bomb shells, are you hearing any of those on the hill on the right that are saying well, maybe it might be time to raise my hand? >> i don't think so. we have been waiting for that moment to happen over the past three years. i don't think we have seen it. with the "access hollywood" tape, sure, but charlottesville was the last moment that republicans said the buck stops

here. i will say while the cake is bake and the point is made that most trump voters believe there was a deep state working against him, this op-ed serves to give tangible confirmation of that and it's an energizer for the group of voter that is when the president talks about this anonymous op-ed, the parlor gain here in washington is to talk about the who. out on the trail, it matters more that this article exists and voter who is might have been energized in 2016 and are resting on laurels in 2018, a lot of republican candidates like i said want that group of voters. things like this energize them. adversity is the thing that energizes trump supporters the most. when they see something against the president, they feel energized in my conversations to come out and say we have your back even if there is a deep state working against you within your administration. >> curtis, paraphrasing what you already know.

leaders on the right and in essence unfazed. speaker ryan not going to investigate when asked about that. it seems like despite what we have seen this week, there has been little movement. >> absolutely. i mean republicans are not pushing back on anything. it's kind of the same status quo as we head forward. >> thank you all. great panel to start the hour. thank you. >> coming up, george papadopoulos headed to prison and how the president is spinning that news and stormy daniels is speaking out again. this time what she may be able to say that could bring down president trump.

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i don't know papadopoulos. i saw him sitting in one picture at a table with me. i don't know him. they got him on i guess a couple of lies is what they are saying. >> president trump distancing himself from his former campaign aide, papadopoulos sentenced on friday to 14 days in prison for lying to the fbi. that jail time comes with a fine of $9,500, 200 hours of community service, and a year of supervised release. papadopoulos is now the first campaign adviser to be sentenced. three others pleaded guilty or were convicted of felonies and

await sentencing. greg brouwer and analyst and former assistant director for counter intelligence. frank, i broke down the numbers, right? here with the sentence and now what papadopoulos has to do. the arguments go both ways in terms of why so little and others say it's appropriate. what's your perspective? >> the so-called coffee boy got off light, but let's look at why. that's what interests me. so first we heard the judge talk about george showing genuine remorse and we heard about reluctant and measured cooperation with the special counsel and still a problem child. what interested me is that the judge seems to have bought into the concept as the president as obstructor in chief. in january of 2017, the

president had just come out publicly and called this whole investigation a witch hunt and a fabricati fabrication. fake news. that influence sad him. he's waiting in the lobby and looks up at the wall and sees hanging framed photos of the president and attorney general sessions and thinks i'm about to cooperate and give information about the people whose faces are hanging on the wall. the notion as the president as obstructing publicly in plain view is what influenced the sentencing decision. we are seeing that play out publicly as the president continues to do that with regard to other people. >> interesting. do you agree with that and when you look at this, what does it say about what bob mueller is doing? >> this is the latest example of evidence that the mueller team

uncovered as someone affiliated with the trump campaign having contacts with russia or russians and lying about it. we saw the guilty plea some weeks ago and we see the sentencing. i agree it's a light sentence. the judge seemed to split the baby between what the government asked for which was sometime in prison and what the defense was asking for which was probation only. relatively light, but a felony conviction and prison time and again, an example of trump campaign-related individuals not quite coming clean with contacts with russia. >> i want to move on to something that has just come out. stormy daniels saying that she has potentially damaging information that could bring down president trump. i want to play what she said on dutch tv and i want to get your reflection. >> is this something you know

now which we will know soon that could bring down this presidency? >> um, i say that yes, there is stuff i know and it's a 50-50 shot at this point. that's scary odds if you are the president. >> you add into that the nda that has been discussed that michael cohen and reportedly potentially if you were to say if you pay for the amount given to you, this now information could come out. frank, what might be the import of this? >> we had to consider the source. if it's stormy daniels, it's probably swordid. trump's base seems not to buy into morality as a disqualifier. they made a deal with the devil and in it for the long run. i'm not certain anything that

stormy can come out with is going to convince them. i'm waiting for the mueller report and see if the president was colluded and conspireing with an adversarial foreign government. >> we see continuing grand jury activity and it's interesting that there were three categories of players here. those who have been indict and have been witnesses in the grand jury and remain targets in the third category is an interesting one. it includes people potentially very close to the president and i'm waiting to see what is next from the special counsel's team. >> greg brouwer and frank, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> coming up, former president obama returns to the political spotlight, pulling no purchases as he challenges president trump's leadership and the president fires back.

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we have a chance to flip the house of representatives and make sure the real checks and balances are in washington. >> former president obama headlining a rally in california earlier today for seven democratic congressional candidates. he and president trump have been stumping for candidates ahead of the mid-terms less than two months away. 60 days. the recent low approval ratings and a blistering anonymous attack from within the white house will could make the fight for congress more competitive. trump plans to hit the campaign trail with stops in missouri and mississippi. former president obama is campaigning in illinois, ohio and pennsylvania. bring in republican strategist and democrat strategist and huff post. you can see the approach here and see that president trump is

still desired on the road, number one. on the right. on the left, you have the desire to see the former president, barack obama. also on the road. who is going to be better at this net-net. >> we can decide that after the elections in november. it's interesting when you show the map. donald trump is going into red states where he is liked and barack obama whether he's in california or the area in california he was in today or going into pennsylvania or ohio. those are places where there are a lot of independent voters and swing voters. republican to either stay home or go democrat because they are so frustrated with the president. it's an interesting strategic move on president obama's part. let's not forget, he is making the visits to the areas a week after he gave a eulogy for senator john mccain, a republican.

i think he has a lot of band width to use right now to get that message and appeal to independent voters and maybe some republican women who are really just disgusted by donald trump. >> timing. i want to play this sound byte, if i can. we will get to you, michael. this is poresident obama. moral and ethical and related to civil human rights. >> we are supposed to stand up to discrimination. we are sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly and unequivo l unequivocally to nazi sympathizers. how hard can that be saying that nazis are bad?

>> michael, will this move the needle and by how much? this sort of messaging to the base and those who might be swingable. >> that's what the president of the united states should sound like. the juxtaposition between barack obama and donald trump couldn't be more startling. on one side you have barack obama, a man who has spoken to our better angels and talked about the ties that bind us and unify and on the other side, you have donald trump. a president and candidate who may be a moral failure and done the what aboutism when it comes to the altright and nazis. president obama is going to be a really good campaign surrogate in georgia and florida where we are trying to turn out more african american voters. like susan said, a lot of republican women who are sick of the rhetoric and attack on women's rights. it's going to have to be surgically used, but president obama will be a great surrogate

come mid-terms. >> the fire wall we talked about in the last election, he's also there, too. what's at stake here, the political report said 39 republican seats are toss ups at the moment. real clear as nine senate seats as toss ups as well. i was in tennessee yesterday and the day before. it is close there, susan. the messaging is do you vote for the letter -- this is what i heard -- or do you vote for the person? >> yes, but you start looking at the house seats that are toss ups. republicans have all the votes that are i going to get. yes, the history is to have lower voter turn out, but they are prospecting for more new voters. a lot of places democrats can

pick up new voters. >> does barack obama get the new voters? >> that's what he is trying to do. does he motivate the folks in the hall today? 800 people at the college, to go out and take action. are they going to register people and knock on doors and do canvassing? if they can find new voters and i say people who don't vote in off years. that's going to be the difference when we look at the turn out. when you look at the primaries in florida and new york and in massachusetts where there was such surprise victories in the democratic primaries, the people dend tend who tended to win got the votes they expected. it's just that these other challengers and all these new people changed the land scape. >> when we talk about -- i just

want to get to this, michael and you can comment on what she said. i wanted to at more to the conversation. hillary clinton, as you know hitting the road for bob menendez and one has to ask given her past, is she going to have the same efficacy that former president obama might have? >> that's going to be an interesting pairing. having senator clinton and bob menendez together, but hillary clinton does get an audience and she has every right to make sure the democrats are elected. one thing we are dealing with in georgia and florida, the nature of these elections. we have shawn shaw who is running to be the first black attorney general and andrew gillum and stacy abrams. we can't look past the historic nature and the changing demographics across this country. that's something when you have president obama out there talking about it, it goes back

to that 08 and 2012 election. that place really well, too. >> as part of this, that might play well and we were reporting on nbcnews.com. the number of women that are moving into the general. hillary clinton going to be hitting the trail for women that are democrats and trying to get them elected. how will that resonate? >> hillary clinton needs to be used as a surgical fund-raising tool. when you talk about helping out menendez in new jersey who just came out of a huge investigation and yes, he was cleared on the changes, but he really is in bad shape against a republican and they are going to have to spend a ton of money there. having hillary clinton is only going to help the republican as far as turn out goes. as far as helping other women, i think going into some areas where she can raise a lot of money for them will be helpful.

she is the wrong face and voice for the democrats to use right now. they would be better off using president obama. >> another take away is it's surgical. pacific. susan and michael, thank you. coming up, why a top white house official believes ted cruz could soon be an ex-senator. oh. hey mom. now that we have your attention... capri sun has four updated drinks. now with only the good stuff. do you know how to use those? nope. get those kids some capri sun!

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this just in. the "new york times" now reporting one of president trump's top advisers believes senator ted cruz could be headed for defeat in november. the white house budget director mick mulvaney hold new york donors in new york city that ted cruz could lose to betto o'rourke because cruz is not likeable enough. the new york times obtained audio from someone present at that meeting. smf somebody was just on the ground in texas and here more about the man and this tight, tight race. >> the flip side to that coin is o rourke is very likeable and up against a lot. we allowed conservative talk radio to be both your guide and your sound track.

>> he's hip, cool, ted cruz and not hip and cool. his trick is to go to the places and hold a rally and get people to show up and say the things they like to hear. >> i am concerned about the polls. i don't are inially know where they are polling people at. >> there are people coming out in el paso. there are people coming out in ft. davis. >> i don't see ted cruz. i see beto. i'm concerned if ted cruz wants to win this race. where are his people? >> you go to some of the reddest places in texas like abilene. so reliably red, you can see it glowing from outer space. there is really something very special happening in texas right now. now, it may be reflected in the polls. >> i talked to a lot of people and nobody i have ever talked to, i never met one person who

has been poled. who are they polling? illegal immigrants? >> to everyone in the community who gave me a chance to succeed, i'm going to make the absolute most of it right now. >> three minutes after the hour, robert francis o'rourke, better known as beto, feels it's very american to take a knee. >> i can think of nothing more american than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights any time, anywhere, any place. thank you very much for asking the question. >> ted cruz was attacking you on the nfl. >> no. my comments speak for themselves. >> thank you. >> robert francis beto hurt himself with the ramblings on and on and on about there is nothing more american than taking's knee. as a matter of fact it looks like it might have helped him. who are these people? >> they are american. we should be able to, if you

want to kneel, be able to kneel. if you don't want to kneel and stand up, go ahead and stand up. >> i have a list of questions for beto. otherwise known as robert o'rourke, do you think you are going to win with your his pandering. >> why not ted cruz. >> he has been out there for a long time and hasn't represented anybody when it comes to hispanics. he hasn't stood up for what hispanics are for. >> the victory along the boarder is by mobilizing the latino borders, but the chilling effect by trump, people don't want to put their names on those sign in sheets. >> i want to get your thought on the latest reporting we are getting. mick mulvaney, are they pulling back. is he going to lose support? >> donald trump is going to hold a huge rally and michael avenatti is i think -- i think

they are running scared. the president does not want to back a loser, regardless of what he said. >> the president supporting ted cruz is not helping. >> it's a weird situation. 47-47 on approval, disapproval. i'm not sure it helps ted to have the president down there. >> you were at that football game. what was the sense of talking about politics. >> we talked about this. you get outside the beltway and people are more civilized. you can take texas out of the civilized game. it's a nasty race down there. there are allegations back and forth. right now the o'rourke campaign said it penetrated text messaging and saying help us get illegal immigrants to the polls. that's the kind of thing people are worried about. >> friday night lights. thank you. cal perry is with us for that special report. as we saw in cal's package, the kneeling protest is polarizing

political and social issues. this week we saw consumers burn nike merchandise featuring former san francisco quarterback, colin kaepernick. despite the outcry, there was a 27% up tick in sales between sunday and wednesday compared to last year. nike's stock initially fell following the debut, it finished up 1% at the close of markets friday. clair atkinson and mar vet and founder and president of the agency. clair, when we saw the jump in sales, is that a tributed to again, colin kaepernick being involved in this campaign? >> yes. how can it not be? i have fresh reporting for you, richard, which i think is interesting. the value of the free media that

nike got from this campaign was worth $220 million. to put that in context, a super bowl ad costs $5 million. it's like they bought out the super bowl and got it for free. the break down of whether that is positive or negative media coverage is interesting. the positive free media they got worth about $69 million. negative is $67 million. neutral is $82 million. you can argue this was a win for nike from that perspective. >> i'm no numbers expert here, but -- >> check in on the stock price. it did go down when the ad cam out and the share price of puma and adidas went down too and tariff conversations going on in the market that day. >> what we know is connecticut assumers attribute social values. you can no longer be neutral if you will. you have to stand up for things.

does it mean we will see more of something like this? this is certainly standing up for something. >> consumers are very aware and very woke. colin's silent protest is more powerful than president trump's spoken words. consumers realize that donald trump's actions towards john mccain and his death and his legacy, he dishonored a war hero, yet colin took a knee in silent protest of injustice and consumers are saying wait a minute, the president is weaving a false narrative. a narrative that isn't true. we are going to lean into nike's brand positioning of just do it. we are going to exercise courage, bravery, be fearless like colin was and show that that is the ethos that we want to see 3rprevalent in our world and not just an ad campaign.

>> we talk about bravery and ethos and values and ethics, na. you know cases of that, but we have numbers to consider. the average nfl ticket is $172. nike shoes are from 60 to $200. it pays to stand up for things, but what is the better resonance point or touch point if you are in professional sports to stand up for values. is it through the stadiums that folks don't go to or these brands that are associated with the sports? >> if you are a football fan, you are going to buy the ticket, i think. i don't think we will see protests and not go to the nfl anymore. >> if you are a football fan, i don't know if you go to these games. >> they are going to watch on tv. >> the brands and the shoes and the shirts, the gear you might

wear is a better place to go. >> this ad campaign is all about nike rolling out a new colin kaepernick line and them selling a product. they are looking to target youngsters with the highest margin product which are the sneakers. the ad campaign called crazy dream. it speaks to those youngster who is want to excel. it speaks to american excellence. this is not just being the best in your class, but the world. that speaks with a message for youngsters to say be the best you can be. >> is it the actual spore sport experience now? or is it the products associated with it. it's an interesting discussion. >> it's both. you can't separate the product from the message and the brand. mul ultimately he reflects just do it. they were really saying we will

support him and believe they are consumers who will stand with us in supporting him with individuality and what is the special reflecting. it reflects people standing in courage. really standing for what they represent. when you see the athletes across all spectrums and you see nike supported lebron james and his stronger shoe where he just had three black women design that shoe. social activism is prevalent and aligned with brands. nike needed to take that step. they have competitors and if a competitor had not gotten ahold of colin kaepernick, that is more powerful than any word spoken by president trump. >> thank you for coming in. come up, brett kavanaugh appears to be krucruising coconfirmatio and the democrats are not giving up. everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back.

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supreme perjury? groups are calling for whether

trump lied during hearings. democrats work to block judge kavanaugh. one might ask is there any play left to be made? here to unpack this, congress reporter and editor in chief and legal analyst benjamin whittas. >> the hearings began with the facts that the republicans had 51 votes and the raw power to confirm brett kavanaugh and they end with the same fact. the democrats are very frustrated. i think principally on maybe logical lines, but also on what i think are legitimate concerns about the quality of the production that they got from

the white house and some, i think, kind of silly concerns about kavanaugh's truthfulness, but at the end of the day the fundamental fact is that the republicans and the senate have the votes to confirm him and that was true the day he was nominated and it remains true. >> what were some of the takeaways of what we learned about brett kavanaugh and his views on these crucial cases that have been discussed? >> well, i think what you saw was an effort on the part of democrats to really throw everything they could at the wall and try to see what stuck and i think the end result at the end of the week was that nothing really stuck. we saw someone who, you know, stressed the idea of judicial independence. he referred very much to supreme court precedent. he was well rehearsed and

polished. i don't think that should surprise anyone. i think another big takeaway from this week that we saw was the fact that there was some 20/20 presidential posture on the part of at least two members. we saw a senator try to say there was a conversation that brett kavanaugh had someone with the law firm representing the president and then you saw cory booker speaking on document releases. i think those were the two main takeaways this week and really democrats' efforts to tarnish brett kavanaugh's credibility didn't go too far. >> what did democrats potentially miss here in coming at brett kavanaugh? >> i don't think they missed very much. i think the problem for democrats here is that brett kavanaugh is, in fact, an

extremely well qualified conservative nominee and he's exactly the sort of profile of the person that if you were a republican president, you would want to send up there. you know, it's a hard target for democrats except in the very limited sense, which i think by the way is true, that he is, you know, a conservative's conservative and he's gonna do a lot of things on the supreme court that liberals aren't gonna like. so to the extent that there's a philosophical objection, i don't want to vote to confirm a conservative nominee, particularly after what happened to garland, he didn't need the hearing in order to come to that conclusion or make that point if that's where you are on it. if the question is sort of what gloves can you lay on it, what points can you score, i very

much agree it was a lot of hours to deliver very little payoff in that regard. >> you know what you both saw here is if you're critical of this current president, then you may be critical of kavanaugh. so falling on that line of thought, what might this mean for the mueller investigation if kavanaugh is voted into the court. >> if the president is subpoenaed into the mueller investigation, the lawyers have said they will challenge that to the supreme court and if kavanaugh ends up sitting on the supreme court he could be a deciding vote on a case that could come before the court. what we learned during the hearing this week is that brett kavanaugh would not commit to recusing himself. the senator from connecticut tried to get kavanaugh to commit to recusing himself from matters that might involve the

president, particularly with regard to the mueller probe. kavanaugh said he would not give that assurance. he said it would violate independence. things are going to be watched very closely. >> andrew and benjamin, some breaking news for you. are either of you tennis fans? >> yeah. >> not particularly. >> okay. a big upset just moments ago at the u.s. open. serena williams was defeated. osaka is the first japanese player to win a grand slam title. >> this is clearly very bad news for the kavanaugh nomination. >> thank you both. have a good saturday. thanks for spending your time here on msnbc. have a great evening. order your kit at ancestrydna.com

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