get to the poll because if not you will have another two or six years of this craziness. so make sure you vote. all right? >> one more. we know that you had meetings -- >> matt miller sin cli called that a fund raising play. my thanks to my guests. i'm nicole wallace. hi, chuck. >> happy friday, nicole. >> it's friday. >> it's friday. which means, it's just another day in our world these days, right? thank you. >> hardest working man in tv. >> exactly. if it's friday, the russians are interfering again. ♪ good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp dailiment" federal prosecutors say they have busted a multi-million dollar russian conspiracy which sought to interfere in the 2018

midterm elections. you know, the ones we're involved in now funded by a russian oligarch who's known as putin's chef. the charges against one of the financial ringleaders were announced just moments after the nation's intelligence chief put out a statement, a joint statement, warning of foreign interference of russia, china and others. one wonders if they put out that warning knowing what was coming from the justice department and we'll get into that in a moment. joining me from the courthouse where the charges were filed is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, this indictment is not a mueller indictment and yet it does involve somebody who mueller has indicted. walk me through this. >> reporter: sure. back in february you remember mueller's prosecutors brought charges against a number of russians and a russian company, concord, which is run by that russian oligarch nicknamed russian's chef because he

started in the food business. they say that he was involved in raising money and directing the hacking operations then. today, they charged a woman who is an accountant for that company concord. and said that she was involved in setting up false social media memes, phony internet accounts, phony websites this year. so the mueller charges were about the 2016 election. this is the first charges from any federal prosecutor about this year's election. an enthat and that's why they weren't filed by mueller's prosecutors. this is about this year's election. and what they say is that these memes were keen to sort of hot button political issues in the u.s. -- immigration, race relations, for example, the nfl protests taking of a knee at football games. gay rights, the women's issue. and they all tried to take advantage of events here in the u.s. like the las vegas mass

shooting or the united the right rally in charlottesville or the charleston church shooting and they say that they attacked some politicians and when i say attacked, criticized online some by name. mcconnell, rubio, john mccain. but they seem to be equal on attacking both republicans an democrats. for example, they attacked both the two men running in the special election for the senate in alabama. so this basically they say all these social media sites were sites purporting to be from americans or american interest groups all of which were engineered and put up by russians, posing as americans. >> we know that mueller has a team investigating this. does this mean the justice department has sort of a full-time operation that's monitoring this in order to have gathered this evidence and file these charges? >> reporter: yes. the fbi has for the past year

had a foreign influence task force set up to look for just this kind of thing. and they're very actively working on this trying to monitor attempts to hack into election systems, on the one hand, or election voter databases and public outreach with trying to sow confusion or discord or undermine confidence in the election process or the american electoral system so they're looking at foreign actors trying to do either of those two things. >> pete williams, at the virginia courthouse for us, pete, thanks very much. the other big story today, president trump's closing argument. which features a heavy dose of a bit of fearmongering, conspiracy theories and mob-style antics. folks, it just might work. if you saw the president for the first time at the rally in montana and you were in this coma back to 2014 you would probably say this is off the rails. there's the president reviving

chants of lock up his defeated political opponent and the president cheering the assault of a reporter by a congressman and at the same time the murder of a "washington post" journalist is dominating the head lines. >> greg is smart. by the way, never wrestle him. you understand that? never. any guy that can do a body slslam, he's my kind of -- i had heard that he body slammed a reporter. i said, oh, this is terrible. he's going to lose the election. i said, wait a minute. i know montana pretty well. i think it might help him and it did. >> yet there's the president telling that same crowd of people who cheered the assault of a reporter and the jailing of their political opponent, the other side turned into the angry mob. >> the democrats have truly turned into an angry mob bent on destroying anything or anyone in

their path. democrat mob. calling it a mob now. these people are starting to think of it as a mob. the choice could not be more clear. democrats produce mobs. republicans produce jobs. >> and there's the president pushing any number of conspiracy theories about rigged elections, paid protesters and a caravan of immigrants he said maybe dispatched to the border just to make him look bad. >> a lot of money's been passing through people to come up and try and get to the border by election day. because they think that's a negative for us. but they wanted that caravan and there are those that say that caravan didn't just happen. it didn't just happen. >> folks, these are antics that might be typically called off the rails by traditional political standards but in this environment the president might actually be putting the gop back

on track. >> this will be an election of kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order and common sense. it's going to be an election of those things. >> sow san paige is the "usa today" washington bureau chief. george will is a contributor and donna edwards is a former democratic congresswoman from maryland. the president's closing argument, could it be effective? >> not just his closing argument for 2018. his opening argument for 2020. this is very similar to the campaign of last time. a campaign he's going to run next time and one cannot point out too often that he's making assertions for which there is no evidence including the idea that somebody is paying migrants to join this caravan and try to get into this country. >> multiple e-mails of people saying i hope you investigate

this story of these people paid by george soros. >> and it's -- and so some people believe it and there's zero evidence of it. it's made up out of cloth. >> could it work, george? >> look. susan says here's the man sowing division with fact reassertions. and we begin the program talking about this little pop gun from russia. what are they doing? sowing discord with fact-free assertions. what the russians are doing is nothing compared to's done on a daily basis by the president of the united states. so why are we so exercised about the russians? i don't get it. >> can't you be exercised about them both? >> we can but there's a disproportion. >> if people realize it's the russians we might go, maybe we caught to calm down our divisions? right? you know what i mean? like it would make people feel better we're not as divided as

it seem that is we are. >> the president doesn't want to do that. i mean, the president believes that he wins by sowing the divisions, and, you know, the very fact that we have really not put any clamps down on russia just says to them and any other actors out there, you know, it's an open market. >> we indicted the chef. mueller did last year. and it was so -- the indictment and the sanctions so effective that he did it again. >> but the president of the united states hasn't indicted the russians and i think that's a problem. and then, you know, you have a president who realizes that he lives in a world of ill lit ration. he figured that out for the people who are most supportive of him and that's -- those are the people he's speaking to in this election. i believe this is about 2020 and i also believe that all of his travel if you look at it, where he is going and how he is doing it, it's about 2020, not winning an election in 2018. >> the kavanaugh thing, though,

is certainly something that i think the republicans have put everything on it. now the house campaign arm. it was one thing that kavanaugh became a senator -- made sense in senate races. this is the leadership fund, a new radio ad running in basically about the 15 seats that they have deemed as the ones that are they're going to try to protect until the very end. take a listen. >> brett kavanaugh's a faithful husband, loving father and proven public servant and the liberal mob set out to destroy him and his family because of their own extreme political agenda. now, if nancy pelosi is put back in charge they are threatening to impeach president trump and justice kavanaugh. the stakes couldn't be higher. the choice couldn't be clearer. on november 6th, vote to defeat the liberal mob. >> i thought it was hard to put kavanaugh in the house but they drew the line. >> well, they're trying to draw a line. >> effective or not?

>> the battlegrounds are so different in the house and the senate and makes the sense in the world that the kavanaugh story accelerated republicans, engaged republicans in the red state where is the key senate races are but the key senate races in the suburban districts even in red states and the suburban districts were appalled by what happened in the kavanaugh hearings so i think it's a maybe hail mary pass and much less prospect of being effective in the house districts. >> is it possible, george, that kavanaugh just accelerated the natural tightening that was going to happen? >> sure. the republicans generally come home as election day draws near. i would be surprised if the kavanaugh surge if such there was lasts all the way to november 6th because nothing lasts that long in american history anymore. on the other hand, that ad indicates that the republicans and mr. trump is as in 20167

getting indispensable help from the democratic party and democrats talking about impeaching trump after they or before they impeach kavanaugh and abolish the senate and expand the house of representatives by 500 or so seats. >> don't forget adding supreme court justices. >> forgot that part. >> yeah, yeah. >> supreme court. all the while saying trump doesn't respect our institutions. it's amazing. >> in my travels this week, no democrat would say it on the record. it was amazing how consistent some of them were people running, people advising, voting. all of them are going, boy, the democrats really messed up this kavanaugh thing. those washington democrats messed up. some of them by name and name checked some of the democrats but these were democrats out in the campaign trail frustrated that kavanaugh stopped momentum. >> i think that's why what you see is democrats in the swing districts not talking about kavanaugh or the supreme court. they're talking about health care, the thing that people care about and that they're running

on in their districts and this is where i think it's really hard for republicans in those places that they need to turn because they don't have a message on health care and really they don't have a message on tax cuts because the tax cuts didn't -- >> the president -- >> preaching that. >> pre-existing condition thing done. taken care of it. >> in every single district people know that's not true. >> you can see it in their own lives. >> in their lives, they see it in their health care, worried ant their health care and i think for democrats to be really smart they have to do what i have said is focus on your district. this national narrative we sit around and talk about every day is not playing out in a kentucky district that needs to be swung or the philadelphia area districts that need to be turned. >> i tell you, it is amazing how national the local politics is. i have to say. >> i think the most interesting thing about this election this year is the role of health care an not just primarily but not

just the question of coverage of people with pre-existing conditions. i was in griffin, georgia, yesterday with stacy abrams who's in dead heat with the republican adversary in georgia in october which is as she says means i'm winning but down there it's medicaid expansion. 56% of republicans favor medicaid expansion. it is threatening rural hospitals where you wouldn't normally think that an african-american woman is going to get votes but she is going to get votes there partly because people are worried about their 21 hospitals on the danger list. eight have already closed. because of georgia being one of i think 17 state that is did not take medicaid expansion. >> you know, it is interesting. it is clear they are panicked about health care, republicans are. i mean, earlier this week all of a sudden it was all about send the message. no, no, no. we care about pre-existing conditions and almost -- there's

an ad i have a son with -- >> they know this has worked. >> americans learned so much about health care and how it works with a long education process through the debate -- >> painful, long education process, yes. >> implementation of it and i think there's cost involved and not that the affordable care act is perfect but the attitudes are positive rather than negative and it's going to be a good thing for democrats after being catastrophic in the last two midterms. >> john mccain may have saved them by coming on the floor and doing this. >> you think it would be worse? >> i do, indeed, yes. the insurance companies are saying rightly that premiums will skyrocket if you require them to cover pre-existing conditions without the mandate. >> to your point, the reason that you want the medicaid expansion is because so many more people have the ability to

qualify and so they understand when their families aren't covered. they also understand when they receive a subsidy to offset some of the costs and they know that that's attribute to believe the affordable care act. >> you said the education. republicans have been pushing back. well, you know, it is just sky high costs. people know it isn't. you can't do something for nothing. >> you can -- people can be told things about russian meddling, that they'll believe or won't believe, but the thing that is affect them in their lives, they know when it happens. >> common sense, they dealt with it. >> i guess it is not a surprise that voters care more about their daily lives than what we are talking about here. >> donald trump is leading the party and the party decided to embrace him and he has one message. do the democrats, donna, need obama out there as a closing argument to sort of galvanize the base a little bit? because that -- say what you will about donald trump.

he's galvanizing their base and certainly moved numbers in missouri and tennessee at least in particular. there isn't an equal person out there. could be president obama if he wanted to. but he hasn't -- he's dipping his toe. he is not doing that galvanizing moment. >> well, you know, i think one of the issues is we are not the party in power. we don't have the white house and we don't have that bully pulpit that gets covered and that is why for democrats the key for them is really just focusing on what they need to do at home because, you know, i think it is baked into the cake what people think about donald trump or not. i mean, maybe you have a narrow slice of people that need to be convinced. the goal now is to get voters out to the polls. to motivate voters to the polls. >> that's what i mean. >> look. i think that you take a candidate like a stacy abrams. they're putzing the money on the ground. they're not just focusing on the ads to run and money on the ground to turn out voters and i think at the end of the day, you

know, democrats have to hope and have to work on making sure that those voters who would otherwise be disaffected that show up at midterm elections show up in this one. >> one quick thing? >> bet in georgia is they don't need obama. they need all the volunteers knocking on doors. early voting in georgia today is triple what it was four years ago. >> i have to say, watching the early vote numbers in georgia, i have been a little -- i thought she was going to come up short. i'm not so sure anymore. that's a race to watch on election night. could we be waving good-bye to the potential blue wave? why the midterms might not be as lopsided as democrats first hoped. ♪ be right back. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be.

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rich, creamy cheesecake with real strawberries. find them with the refrigerated desserts. welcome back. with 18 days to go is this election shaping up to be like a simple, typical midterm than a big blue wave? how do you define wave? democrats are the favorites to take control of the house. hard stop. they need a net 23 seats to win the gavel and 70 of the 75 seats vulnerable to a takeover are held by the republicans. so the path is there. don't forget all the ridiculous number of open seats that republicans deal with. record numbers. national polls suggest republican enthusiasm amped up had some impact. democrats had hoped to flip maybe 40 or more seats, truly a

wave. waszerm it's a gain of less than 40 seats and hard to call that a wave. sounds to me like a typical historical midterm. joining me is david wasserman, a nbc news contributor. i guess the big question is, where are we right now? because if it wasn't for kavanaugh and this same surge happened we would be calling it natural tightening and saying, well, you know. look. nobody said they'll win 55-45. because of kavanaugh and it was a loud tightening, we think it's something else. what say you? >> i think two things have happened in the past pomonth, chuck. we are seeing republicans come home in red districts, not all cases. we are seeing the blue clinton districts where republicans are in white collar suburbs continuing to perform robustly in polls for democrats so that

polarization of the house map i don't think it's lowered democrats floor necessarily but perhaps lowered the ceiling a bit. second thing that's happened is we have seen this green wave of democratic cash and the democrats are raising stunning sums of money even in districts that we're considering likely or safe for the republicans so i think that has the potential to produce some late momentum for democrats, perhaps surprises but right now i'm in the 25 to 35-seat range. >> could that mean all this extra money that's out there, does that mean a whole bunch of races normally 70/30 are 55/45 but the national number you think, oh my god, but it would certainly have an impact on what the national vote looked like? >> there's a lot of bouncing around in the polls nationally. but the district level fundamentals look good for democrats, right? a lot of bellweather suburbs, numbers continue to be a drag on republicans.

the number of open seats, huge problem for republicans. we're seeing open seats in places like florida, lakeland florida. looking at polls that suggest a race of republicans didn't care much about a month ago is now tied. >> which one? >> dennis ross. the democrat, they haven't been the focus of a national fund raising fly and suddenly it's a toss-up and seeing races coming on to the board for democrats lat and suggests there are clear favorites for house control. >> are we looking at just two midterms? meaning, there's a midterm in the suburbs that is a wave and there is a midterm in the other part of america that is simply acting more like a typical midterm for the republicans? >> yeah. the way i have thought about this is pretty much anywhere within a 20-minute drive of a whole foods market is where democrats do pretty well. this year. and places that are more rural

have higher shares of latino voters are places where democrats struggle as they have in every midterm in the past decade to turn out votes and part of the reason why o'rourke might be short in texas but maybe carry in houston and dallas. >> doing well in the white voter suburbs but needing a hispanic turnout. this issue, i heard a lot about it in arizona. right? this is something that's the big thing that's nervous. i had the democratic gubernatorial nominee there. latinos, they're not motivated per se because it's always been defend, defend, defend. and they feel under siege. how much are house democrats nervous about this latino issue? >> well, it is a problem for democrats in a select few districts. there are five republicans who are in majority non-white districts who are vulnerable and we're not seeing the same energy

level, intensity level among latinos and asian voters as we are upscale white that is soured on trump, particularly women. now, you know, urban and suburban districts are performing really well for democrats but this is such a different map in the house than it is in the senate and in the senate part of the reason why democrats haven't put states like arizona and nevada away is that low latino intensity. >> assess the decisions that have been made about triaging versus walking awaiver sus doubling down. are democrats taking anything for granted? are republicans giving up on seats they shouldn't be yet? what are you seeing? what decisions are they making that has you scratching your head? >> republicans know that they have to sacrifice some seats to save others at this point. and so we're seeing some districts that, you know, voted for mitt romney in 2012 and

voted for hillary clinton in 2016 that republicans are now considering cutting so the suburbs of kansas city. kevin yoder is trailing davids who's an opening gay attorney mma fighter native american running in johnson county, kansas. that's a surprise to me. i wouldn't have guessed that would happen. eric paulson in minnesota. >> walking away. >> that's right. >> not that they're doing well but republicans say we can't win. >> right. we haven't necessarily seen republicans pull the plug on people like mimi walters in california. >> you don't get that. they probably should? >> keep in mind that republicans have to preserve some kind of path to hold their losses under 23 seats so they have to pick and choose their battles even in places where they might be down a point or two. >> what about the democrats? anything that they're stretching too much for and they should be -- no.

concentrate on iowa 1 or iowa 3? >> yeah. they're looking a couple districts they thought they might have had in the bag but maybe don't. florida 27 is an example of that where donna shalala's to be the second oldest freshman in congressional history and a non spanish speaker in a district 76% hispanic. that means democrats haven't yet locked that seat down. iowa's first district. 28-year-old state legislator. by 15 points trailing last month. that's a district that may have gotten closer in the wake of brett kavanaugh. republicans closing the enthusiasm gap and meant kind of a narrowing house playing field. >> 18 days. >> thank you very much. >> only going to get interesting. thank you. see you a lot over next days. up next, the propaganda

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and any kidney or liver problems. learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. talk to your doctor about xarelto®. welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with how wrong fdr really was. we have so much more to fear than fear itself. california's chapman university is just out with a new ranking

of america's top fears for 2018. mine, of course, this voice. but topping the list, corrupt government officials. nearly 74% say they're either afraid or very afraid of those corrupt government officials. the list goes on to include things like pollution and global warming and then you get to number 67. spiders and bees. that was right behind the devil and five down from snakes and lizards. coming in at number 87, zombies. where the heck are the zombies? number 88 ghosts. number 90 clowns. which frankly i argue scarier than ghosts. i say this is more than just a list of fears. this is actually a how-to guide for political advertising. some prey on our deepest fears. who can forget this? savannah guthrie would not

co-anchor with me because of this. don't let zombie democrats take over washington. how about for democrats? stop the republican web from spreading. that doesn't scare up a few votes? i don't know what will. i do. i'll just talk to you like this over and over again. we'll be right back. tor knows nothing's more important than a good bedside manner. i don't know how to say this. it's okay, doc. give it to me straight. no, you don't understand, i don't know how to say this. i'm just a tv doctor. they also know you should get your annual check-up. it could save your life. schedule a check-up with your doctor, know your four health numbers, and start taking control of your health today. cigna. together, all the way.

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we have $450 billion worth of things ordered from a very rich country. saudi arabia. 600,000 jobs, maybe more than that. and it would be very hurtful to this country if we said, oh, we won't sell it to you. >> welcome back. that was president trump just moments ago calling saudi arabia a great ally despite their alleged killing of journalist khashoggi. meanwhile, some of the president's allies seem to be trying to tarnish khashoggi's image highlighting the past association with the muslim

brotherhood and raising questions about the work decades ago as a reporter who was covering a guy named osama bin laden. these efforts range from a fox news host. >> we're just reporting the facts. you know? lisa, we don't have to fall down one way or the other but he was tied to the muslim brotherhood. i put it out there because it is in the constellation. >> some people are -- >> to this story in frontpage magazine calling khashoggi a mud limb brotherhood pal of osama bin laden. i'm joined by david ignacius for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor and a colleague of mr. khashoggi. david, i'm trying to figure out why would it matter? if khashoggi had an association with the muslim brotherhood. does that justify killing the man? >> it's shocking to have conservative americans talking as if this part of his past in

some way excuses or explains this gruesome murder. i wrote in a long piece about jamal a week ago. all those details are true. he was a muslim brother. he did know osama bin laden. what's remarkable is in the middle of his life he came to understand that violence and extremism were destroying the arab world and he became a believer in the power of journalism, the power of fact to change people. and he crusaded for it. it's unusual to look danger in the face and go ahead and he did. >> that is story to be elevated and celebrated, the idea of george w. bush of trying to spread freedom and democracy. here's somebody that was perhaps listening. >> whether the right wing attacks on jamal based on his past were circulated this week,

i felt this is so wrong but it gives people who knew jamal a chance to say, yes, that's where he began. but he became a believer in the things that we as americans cherish. freedom. the ability to speak out. the ability to challenge your leadership. he also became fearless in a way that i think people everywhere should admire and in death he is changing his country in the way that he dreamed of. >> funny you say that. do you really believe that? do you think this is having an impact inside the kingdom? >> it's having a huge impact inside the king dodom. it is clear that saudi arabia, mohammed bin salman, the crown prince, would like it to find a convenient fall guy to pin the blame. i wrote several days ago that -- >> what does that do? how do they think that helps them? an associate. >> so if they could have a

investigation and announce this rogue killers, the phrase president trump kind of packaged it up for them is the way to deal with this, they could blame it on the rogue killer and they have this deputy head of their intelligence service who they're kind of getting ready to play this role, if that would make it go away, they would do that. i think it's becoming increasingly clear that's not going to work. that mohammed bin salman, his regime, has become toxic. saudi arabia has significant money problems. so, you know, they're going to try plan "a" and see what the administration does and if plan "a" fails i think they have to move to plan "b" and got to be a change that says this era symbolized by mohammed bin salman is over. how that works, what role he has, can't begin to say. >> a new crown prince? >> well, so -- >> is the king with it?

>> so we don't where king salman is. we do know -- i'll tell you one interesting fact. when king salman decided that he needed to do something with turkey to stabilize the situation ten days ago, he sent a member of the al fisal family. a son of the king, a different branch of the royal family and reached out and sent him as an emissary to turkey and saudis i talked to regarded that as an extremely interesting and important move that was separate by the king from what his son would have done. where is that going? we'll see. but don't think this is over. >> all right. the president's comments just now saying what he said, isn't that sending a signal to congress, i'll veto a sanctions sfwh bill? >> he may be trying to head off sanctions and right to think that saudi arabia is an important ally. locked on that confrontation

with iran and why he needs a stable saudi arabia. but i think he misjudges the degree of anger in congress. >> yeah. >> saudis don't have many friends in congress. remember the jasta issue. >> yep. >> lindsey graham looked right in the camera and said this guy's a murderer. he was speaking to donald trump. he was saying, mr. president, don't do it. >> right. david ignacius, thanks for coming on. sharing what you know about your former sadly we think former colleague. >> yep. up ahead, a couple of senate debates in states where democrats fighting to hang on to those seats. ed year storm should happen every five hundred years, right? fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting. with drones to assess home damage sooner. and if a flying object damages your car, you can snap a photo and get your claim processed in hours, not days. plus, allstate can pay your claim in minutes.

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if you focus on today, tomorrow has a way of working itself out. in tonight's meet the midterms, two of the most endangered senate democrats met the republican challengers face to face last night. in north dakota, the debate overshadowed by heitkamp having to apologize again. >> i don't know that i could ever expect that these women would accept my apology, nor am i asking them to accept my apology. but i am praying for guidance and forgiveness as we move forward. >> what it's worth, cramer did not criticize her for the ad and did attack her decision to oppose brett kavanaugh's nomination. in missouri, mccaskill's

willingness to work with republicans. >> by an independent group that looks at every vote, i am the fifth most likely member of the senate to break with my party. the fifth most likely senator to break with my party. that's because i look at every issue on its merits a ennot -- not on a party line. >> they have another debate next week. sorry about that video mishap. we'll be back with more after the break. i'm ken jacobus, i'm the owner of good start packaging. we distribute environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back. that's right, $36,000. which i used to offer health insurance to my employees. my unlimited 2% cash back is more than just a perk, it's our healthcare. can i say it? what's in your wallet?

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border there. secretary of state is going to mexico. trying to deal with. the president addressing a bunch of stuff last hour the president addressed the caravan again. take a listen. >> are about law and order and borders. and jobs. and they are about allowing crime to enter our country with open borders. because many of those people, a percentage, a fairly big percentage of those people, are criminals. and they want to come into our country. and they're criminals. and it's not happening on my watch. it's not going to happen. >> susan, this feels like a combustible ending to this campaign that could be coming. >> it is a gift to president trump. >> you think it is? >> because -- what's the first issue he talked about when he announced his presidential campaign? illegal immigrants coming over the border who were criminals who threaten us.

this energizes his base like nothing else does. yeah, i think this is helpful for him in generating republican support. although, i think when you think about the different kinds of districts, battlegrounds we have, in suburban districts, when they think about immigration, it's less illegal immigrants coming over to terrorize us, maybe more about the continued separation of immigrant children. >> it brings the separation story, you talk to republicans and they tell you july was the absolute worst month politically for them. dug them a real hole. that was the month of the separations. >> i think the president would be ill advised to count on this caravan carrying him across the finish line. partly because it dramatized rather than build a wall, a 1200 mile wall, whatever it is on the american/mexican border. they ought to build a wall on the guatemalan border, and that's where the problem is. people fleeing.

they're not coming here to go to work for amazon at $15. they're coming here to get away from terror. >> pure and simple. >> civil disorder down there. it's a long walk from guatemala. for this caravan. and people don't do that for the fun of it. >> the reason they're in the caravan is for safety. it's for safety. >> for their own personal safety. and you know, at the same time that the president is going on and on about this, he's also threatening to reduce or you know, severely curtail aid to guatemala and other countries which will exacerbate the problem. he has closed in on the number of refugees who can come in who can get any kind of status to seek asylum. and so all of these things add together to, you know, those districts that really care about those, the suburban districts, they look and say it's an inhumane policy. it may work to shore up his 36%,

but it doesn't get beyond that. >> susan t is interesting. he hates to look like he doesn't know what he's doing, and it's clear his policies haven't worked because the caravans keep coming and growing. and the hard line policies have not deterred families. families who are clearly desperate. and heartbreaking. and of course, nobody supports open borders. show me a democrat who wants no border control. that's really not the case. people do want control over the borders, but there's also an american instinct about how we handle refugees. >> right. the poem is supposed to mean something. >> particularly because these are not people who come and try to crash through the border or sneak in. they come to surrender. >> yes. >> they turn themselves in. >> but if they were going to be criminals, wouldn't they not want to turn themselves in. >> it's weird. these 8-year-old criminals with teddy bears in their backpacks come up asand surunder.

>> and families and they come with clothes on their back or a sack in their hand, and we're turning them away. >> democrats do have to come up with a plan. it can't just be, well, his plan stinks. >> it's a problem for democrats. as you were saying earlier, when you don't have the white house, you don't have a natural leader, someone who really speaks for the problem. you have a lot of different voices who speak for the party. that's a reality until you end with a presidential nominee. >> i think having the house of representatives and the democrats winning the house allows them to put forward policy that makes sense. >> i have to end it there. tgif. i heard that. up ahead, i would like to buy an e and a t and an n.

well, in case you missed it, it's a red letter day in new york city, or rather a gold letter day. this condo tower on the upper west side is now known as 200 riverside boulevard. yesterday, workers pried the letters spelling trump place off the facade. the unit owners themselves voted and decided to yank the president's name off their building. three other buildings in the neighborhood have already done the same. but it all leads me to a question. what on earth do you do with all those gold letters? they shouldn't go to waste. don't just throw them away. right? let's recycle them. perhaps somebody could use them.

and we here at "mtp daily," we're here to help. we ran the letters through our state of the art word generating machine in the basement of 30 rock, also known as some bizarre website, and i'm pleased to offer a few new business ideas. for instance, why not open up a british themed bakery called crumpets pal. you don't like that? no good? okay, how about a floor covering business called plum carpet. i can see that. maybe get that cartoon bob guy to sell it. or a college standardized test tutoring business called act plumper. or a kitchen and home supplies good store called mr. cut plate. whatever you do, you better move fast because i'm sure these letters will generate a plump react. that's all for tonight. we'll be back monday with more "mtp daily," if it's sunday, it's "meet the press" on your local nbc station.

i promise, the voice will be rested and ready. "the beat with ari melber" starts right now. >> i don't want to make you talk too much with your voice, but we do enjoy seeing you on the road and back in the home court advantage. we'll be watching this sunday. >> i'll take it. that's it. voice gone. out. >> see you, chuck todd. we have a lot to get to in our friday night show. donald trump speaking out late today about his support for illegal violence against a journalist. an important story later in the show. >> also, tonight, president obama's point person on health care is here with facts about the gop ads backing health care. and later, a definitive breakdown on midterm ads with rob reiner and the comedian joe mandy. we begin with breaking news on election interference. news breaking today. federal prosecutors are indicting a russian national for interfering in this election. the one in 18