weeks. >> the most significant midterm election in the hus history of the country to be honest with you. one of two things will happen. trumpism will be validate d and he will be em bollened or repudiated and he will have a check placed on him by a democratic majority in the house. that's what's at stake in the election. >> my thanks to the panel. that does it for our hour. hi, chuck. >> thank you. if i yell loud enough, you can hear me in the other studio. i'm virtually waving to you above your head. good evening, i'm chuck todd here at election headquarters in new york city. 12 days until the midterm elections and we have breaking news involving the investigation into what has grown to ten bombs targeting prominent democrats and trump critics across the country. it's a list that now includes two packages found in delaware

both address ed to joe biden, another one sent to the production offices of robert de niro here in new york city and another sent to maxine waters in los angeles among many others. we still have to idea who did this and the fbi wrapped up a joint press conference in new york a short time ago. warning that more devices could still be out there. >> remain vigilant as it does remain possible further packages have been or could be mailed. do not move, do not handle any suspicious or unknown package. leave it to the law enforcement professionals. >> nbc chief investigative reporter jonathan dietz is reporting that authorities believe some of the packages were mailed from florida. investigators want to know if there's a potential connection to prior threats made directly to florida congressman debbie wasserman schultz's office. some were poorly made. investigators are trying to

determine whether or not that means this was a hoax or the work of an unsophisticate bomb maker. also there's been speculation that some of the devices including the ones sent to george soros' home were hand delivered because they lacked postmarks. but they did go through the mail. the soft packaging couldn't go through the machines and those postmarks didn't et show up. in addition to the investigation, we are following a dramatic series of political developments tied to the story as the president and allies point fingers at democrats and the media for the current toxic political environment while deflecting any comments directed at them. the president claim ed that the anger in this country is because the mainstream media purposely reports false news. he said the media needs to, quote, clean up its act fast, but he only targeted mainstream media and not his echo chamber. and sarah sanders told reporters that the press has a role to

play in this issue. but she seemed to bristle at the idea that the president does too. >> 90% of the media attention around this president is negative despite historic job creation, despite the fact that our economy is booming. you guys continue to focus only on the negative. that is a role to play. >> does he acknowledge he has a direct role to play? >> there's a big difference between comments made and actions taken. the president is not responsible for sending suspicion packages to someone no more than bernie sanders was responsible for a supporter of his shooting up a baseball field practice. this is at the hands of the president is ridiculous. >> we're going to dive into the political fallout in a moment. we're going to give with the the latest on the investigation. pete williams is our justice correspondent here at nbc news. jim kavanaugh is an msnbc

contributor. and clint van zandt is a former fbi agent and profiler. you were so helpful yesterday in understanding this. we brought you back today for more of your insight, more of your help and helping viewers understand this. pete, let me start with the investigation itself. we heard that press conference. do they really have no idea who it is or there's a group of people that they suspect but they are not ready to talk about it publicly? >> i think it's more the former than the latter. they don't have a suspect at this point, but there are some helpful signs. there's some indication base on analysis of the packages that at least some of them were postm k postmarked. you're right about the soft packaging and the odd size of the packages with the bombs stuffed into the envelopes so they didn't go through automatic canceling machines. so some of them that went to cnn were not cancelled or otherwise

stamped. but some were, according to people who have seen images of all the bombs and that has in part led them to the possibility that at least some of these devices may have been mailed from florida. so they are pursuing that. but they want to try to find out is what's the last post office that handled them and then try to work back to figure out where did they originate, what's the closest post office to the point of origin and get surveillance video in trying to figure out whether anybody saw them and look at witnesses and that kind of thing. that's a hopeful sign. in a bombing investigation, usually investigators are crawling around picking up little pieces. here you have nine fully intact devices. that's an unbelievable evidence wind falls that they will try to exploit from all the pieces, all the components that went into the bombs and also trying to find any evidence that was inadvertently left in the

packaging. so they have a lot to work with here. >> has a single envelope been opened? was it opened or has every one of these -- i us ask because is there an obvious trigger? how is this bomb supposed to fwo off? none of them went off. how is this t supposed to go off? >> that's a good question. what we're told is -- often times package bombs are designed to go off when they are opened. for example, that was the mo of the unibomber. those were rigged to go off and those were largely boxes and envet low. s. they haven't seen any wires coming out of the devices attached to the envelope that would be a make or break circuit to set the bomb off. so one question is what was supposed to set the bomb off. we think the gadgets taped to the side of them, the electric circuits you have seen, that thing in the fore ground there is some kind of timer. but for what? a timer to set it off at some time? how do you do that with a

package bomb? you don't know when it's going to be delivered. was it to keep it from going off until a certain point. so that's good question and i don't think we know the answer to that. >> it feels if we're talking about a timer -- was this an inexperienced bomb maker or somebody overly sophisticated maybe on technology, but under sfophisticated on explosives. >> i will tell you that they don't know the answer to that. they don't know who made them. it's hard to know what the et design philosophy was. i will say that they believe that some of these devices after analyzing them initially would not have gone off. because there are flaws in the way they were made. but is that intention al to be scary hoax device or because they simply didn't et know what they were doing. and i hope you pursue that question with jim kavanaugh because we have talked about this and he had some views on that. but they just don't know what

the deal is. and they have to be very careful to say two things. one, they haven't analyzed all these in detail yet. it's a slow, pain-staking process because they are trying to disaemable and preserve every piece of evidence they can get. any fingerprints along the way so it's a very slow process. but secondly, they want people to know that these are potentially dangerous. just because none have gone off so far doesn't mean if you find another one it might not be the one that works and you should treat it carefully. >> is it precaution they warn there might be. more or is this an assumption or do they have evidence? >> no evidence that there are anymore. the postal service person at the news conference said they know of none in the system. the secret service has said they don't et know of any against their protectees. the one that was for dinero was sitting in the office for two days before they realized they

had it. but they don't know of any that are out there. they have to assume there could be, but they don't know. >> pete williams, i will let you go. you have a lot of work to do. so thank you. pete, you did tee up jim kavanaugh. when i us moderate debates, i go to the next person name checked. i guess this is a bit of a mystery. we can't figure you how these bombs are supposed to go off. what does that say to you? >> it says one thing. this bomber was not the valedictorian of the bomb making which is a. they may be. just poorly made and designed desivices. i can tell by looking at it there are a lot of flaws, which i won't talk about on the news because we don't want to educate the guy. but there's certainly some flaw this is there. so they could have been made -- here's the key. don't confuse, us collectively in the audience who is in this with us, don't confuse intent

with ability. or in other words, don't confuse devariesire with skill. their intent and desire may be to kill all these people, but they don't have the skill and ability. they are not criminally sophisticated and not really practiced in bomb make iing. look at the physical evidence. we talked about the shrapnel inside the bomb. if you were not wanting the bomb to go off, why not tape a bunch of nails to the outside. and why send two bombs to maxine waters and two to joe biden? one bomb will scare you. it doesn't scare you twice as much to get two. that shows me real ire, real hatred, real intent to get congresswoman waters. clint can talk about that as well. >> i'm going to get to the profile in a second. but jim, if. you had a chance to look at these devices, could you

probably put them in the order they were made? >> oh, yeah. they are going to be able to get that pretty quick. maybe you could tell the bomber gets better at it type of thing. >> you're going to be able to put the roll of tape together. the lab puts the whole roll of tape together. they are making all these together. don't assume it's one person. i think in this particular case, especially when i looked at that memes on the bomb, i have done that to clint before. i think that's an important factor. i'll let clint elaborate. all these things go into the investigators, the commanders trying to get ahead of the bomber. >> chime in here. i'm particularly the isis meme, how much would you be zeroing in on that as a profiler?

>> number one, i can tell you jim cav nag and i would rather be work the case than talking about it. but once you take senior status, that's what you do. four quick things here. let me take the other investigative track. let's talk about the potential that suggested this is either a bad bomb maker or it's intentional hoax devices. number one in at least one or more of the devices, we're not teaching a bomb making school. but i know there's one key component missing. that intentional, if it's intention intentional, if it's not, we're going to see a new and improved version. number two, we have this isis sticker that's stuck inside. it's like a high five type of thing the guy is doing. it's like his own inside joke or

something. i think it was the cnn bomb. what are the two things that scare us? bombs and anthrax. why not do both at one time. if i can scare them once, i'll scare them twice. because if i have ten packages and they all have a florida return address, i don't want to go to delaware and drop them in the mail and have somebody look up and say how come you drove all the way from florida to mail these things. so that's potentially our epicenter. it's like you threw a rock in the pond and the ripples start to go out. right now, florida may be the

epicenter and the investigative waves are moving out from that point. >> let's talk about how you'd be profiling. and i'm curious the decision, this idea that he sent two. jim referenced this may 2 to 1 person. this would indicate more rage. any other things that could indicate? >> i think it could indicate more rage. but if it's a hoax device, is it a double hoax? is this someone that was irritated? and realize this guy or guys right now, they have had a bomb making factory. they have had an assembly line on their kitchen table or in their garage or basement where they built all these things. if they built them all and made this one mistaken flaw, i'm afraid we're going to see more. but if what they intended to do was just put a shot across our

attention and they want to follow it up with a message, i think jim said yesterday or the day before you could follow up with a letter right now saying, hey, i sent those. i can make 100 more. listen to what i have to say. we're waiting for that message right now. >> what are the chances this is more than one person in your mind? >> this could easily be accomplished by one person. now again. if we looked at the unibomber was one guy, the oklahoma city bomber we had two guys doing it. one person could accomplish this. and the idea is how do you keep the secret? you do it yourself and tell no one. >> thank you both. much appreciated. i'm guessing you feel the saim way. you wish you were working the case. >> those guys will do it. they are good.

>> is thank you, guys. ahead the politics of it l all. president trump knows who he thinks is to blame for the country's toxic political environment. stick around. asis. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. before starting tremfya® tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. ask your doctor about tremfya®. tremfya®. because you deserve to stay clearer. janssen wants to help you explore cost support options. our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition... for strength and energy! whoo-hoo! great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-six vitamins and minerals. ensure. now up to 30 grams of protein

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see, liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges. for drivers with accident forgiveness liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪ any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself. those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective. >> welcome back. that was president trump last night after the discovery of a

number of bombs targeting high profile trump critics. before he blamed the media for the anger in this country, let's dig into the political fallout. you heard that version of president trump last night. but i want to play another bite from that same rally that did a nod to the current political environment. take a listen. >> these radical is tammie baldwin. i'm trying to say that nicely. normally i would scream. i'm trying to be nice.

>> is that the best you're going to get? >> it looks like it. you know what i'm struck by with trump. obama started it. i wrote speeches for ronald reagan. he did not use the words republican and democrat. he would prefrefer to those guy the other guys, the other men. so did bill clinton. it was a trope of presidents. since they were the president of all the people and not simply the president of their party, they did not refer to party. so actually barack obama started by name. trump has taken this to another level in his attacks on democrats. it reminds you of how far we have traveled for the president to be this direct in political partisan combat tans. simply going at somebody for being a democrat when he's the

one person in the country who has been elected by everybody. you could say that mocked him. >> we also say he says the quiet part out loud. that's him saying the quiet part out loud. i'm playing it as a guy that i'm behaving. >> if you're like sarah sanders, you do that moment. he's the victim in all of this. he's the bride at every wedding and the baby being christened. he was teddy. the other problem we have here is we have seen political violence throughout history. we have never seen it actually incited by the president. all of this is is a moral

equivalence where maxine waters does this stuff. it's not the same thing. when you have a president who has this kind of a platform and uses it as amply as he does to praise a congressman who beat up a journalist. to talk about supporters about hitting protesters. he has to play a role. it's actually in the job description. >> he's not doing his job. it's interesting. john kasich, who might run against him in the primaries, said that today. he's not doing his most important job, which is protecting the country and that involves uniting the country when it's having a problem. i think it's helpful to john's point to sort of go back to what would be normal with any president. if this happened on their watch,

what would they have done. first, they would have called the people who were targeted. do we have any evidence. >> i keep coming up with the minimum bars. making the call to the former president, nope. canceling the rally last night, minimum bar, or not mocking his own. small things. they complain about media coverage. i think in this case media is dieing to say thank you. >> act like a president. but i think what we all need to think about is how do we handle this moving forward. by. us, i mean everybody. i think we want to draw a bright line between harsh political rhetoric and incitement and teach the american people what the word collusion means. what is incitement to violence. every time he starts to cross

that line, everybody has to come down on him. >> that's a slippery slope because of the word radical. we could sit here and make a case. is it an incitement term meant to demean. it's a tough call. >> that was a price line. >> there are certain things he does in recent days by encouraging people to body slam reporters. that wasn't even the story of the day. it was a huge story when he crosses that incitement line. >> when they start saying lock her up, no, come on. move on. particularly now that we know he seems to be using his cell phone that is far riskier hillary clinton did with her et e-mails. it's not a big call. i'm struck by once again what a

cat skills comedian, that schich with am i being nice. they told me i had to be nice. he's a comedian. it's a routine. and the problem is that it's not funny after ten bombs are sent around the country. maybe one day don't be funny about it. be subdued. have a little dignity. >> one of the low bars. >> we're talking about a bar, it's not even a bar. don't do it for a day. i'm not saying don't do it for a week. don't do it for a day. >> where are the other republ republicans? they are enablers at this point. >> the problem is is their supporters are going in darker corners. listen to what rush limbaugh said. take a listen.

>> republicans just don't do this kind of thing. not one of these bombs went off. if a democrat objeperatives pure is to make it look like there are mobs everywhere. the mobs are not just democrat mobs. you have people here trying to harm cnn and obama and hillary and bill clinton and it might serve a purpose here. >> his media enablers have stuck with him through thick and thin. >> it impacts elected officials because they are like that's who their base is. >> the people who are supposed to be the more cliche, the adults in the room, long abandoned that role. i would say that president trump is at his worst in the moments where he's supposed to bring people together. that's when he just utter lly fails. he couldn't bring himself to do

it. when he's on the world stage, it was putin. he's asked to sort of make a difference between our country and his country and how we govern and he couldn't do that. that's just not who he is. >> not to sort of indulge in conspiracy theory, but we should keep our powder dry. like the most mysterious version were the anthrax envelopes. that was a false flag according to the fbi. that was the letters said, death to israel, death to america. they became convinced it was an american operation. somebody had had done it because he was obsessed with a schoolteacher in new jersey. it didn't kill themselves. it's not as though they went the false flag within the first hour. >> there's intentional political

s she cannery. >> that was a scary time. it did target politicians, but we had no similar thing happening in the white house at the time. that was so random and strange. this is a clear reflection of the atmosphere we're living in now. that was the no the case then. >> i totally agree. this was millions of followers that right wingers don't do this. it's only left wingers that plant bombs. it's not a tactic of the right. whether had it's timothy mcveigh, there are so many examples of how it fwoez on on both sides. there's crazy people. they tell this to their people and they believe it. it's sort of like -- it's almost of a piece with the preexisting condition lie. it's a lie that's so big. i don't like nazi comparisons.

but it was called the big lie. you tell a lie as big as you can because you know that a lot of people are going to believe it. >> this feels like a spot -- i have this fear it could be some russian operation too designed to do what's happening now. more of this. so in some ways, we shouldn't rule anything out. >> it's a very strange moment. we have no idea where it comes from. >> we'll talk about the political exact of this later in the show. up ahead, security on the line. growing questions about president trump's smart phone and who could be listening in. in-laws were coming, a little bit of water, it really- it rocked our world. i had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do. sergeant baker, how are you? they were on it. it was unbelievable. having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa-

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a bunch of this, politics seems like everyone has their own agenda. >> welcome back. i'm obsessed with all the things i learned on our trip to the sun belt. people are shell shocked. they have discovered it's not easy. >> it's turned into a bigger issue in florida and could

result in at least statewide blue wave. i learned democrats have a genuine reason about the lack of enthusiasm who are exhausted in arizona. i learned that the heavily latino workers union could be the secret ingredient for the democrats finding vinctory ther. the more president trump is the issue on election day, the more it moves right leaning independents to the democrats in these states. but most of all, i learned this. the public is exhausted. they are exhausted by the divide. they are exhausted by the rhetoric. exhausted by the fact that politics has affected everyone and everything, their own family, it cost them friendships. how does all of that exhaustion play out? let's talk november 7th. >> every day we're shaking our heads. we don't care if we're democrat or republican. we are one that says it's time to put our politics aside, step

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welcome back. "the new york times" is reporting today that president trump against the advice of his own advisers, which may be. why the press knows, speaks to his friends on unsecured cell phones. when he does, the chinese and russians learn. the intelligence officials say the chinese and russian spies are regularly eavesdropping on the president's calls and china is using the information to manipulate the white house. the presidential called the story mafake news tweeting from husband cell phone i rarely use a cell phone. no one said it wasn't a government-issued cell phone. officials have told nbc news

that they have been concerned for months that president trump is discussing sensitive information on an unsecured phone with informal advisers that include his friend sean hannity at fox. clint, this isn't social media hacking. this is cell phone hacking. just quickly explain to me the technology here. when we say the chinese are listening on his cell phone, he's on there talking with his buddy. walk us through the process. >> one of the weaknesses of our cell phone architecture is the towers and the signals that traffic through them. o so when we talk about hacking, we're not necessarily talking about this phone. they are not inside that phone.

what they are doing instead is probably going through the network. one is the signal to make the call and the other is the communication that follows along. what we hear about, and if you remember to the edward snowden leaks, maybe we're listening to angela merkel or whoever. they hack into the actual tail light phone network and intercept it. now with the internet, there are hundreds and thousands of and millions of switches each of them entry point and you can't secure all those. you can double up online and we have seen stories in the past where even u.s. officials, u.s. ambassador, one was an ambassador to ukraine, are geting their calls intercepted

and recorded is and dumped on to the sbrnt. you never know who did the hacking, but that's how it works. we're talking about the president's three cell phones, that's what's going on as well. . is. >> he clearly knows he gets the warning. he did an interview with the "wall street journal" last week and talking about receiving an intelligence report on the saudi investigation. here's what he said in response to a question about saudis. they have a lot of information. i actually said don't give it to me on the phone. i don't want it on the phone. as good as these phones are supposed to be. he's doing it any way. presidents hate the contraptions. how hard is it to take a regular iphone and make it secured from the chinese? >> if we go back to all

presidents in recent memory or candidates for that matter, they have an inconvenience over security. this was a big debate when president obama took office. no microphone, no camera, no apps, no downloads, no music. it's an encrypted phone et to communicate in a limited way. if he needed to make a real call, he probably would move to a land line or an assistant's phone. in this case, the problem we have is the president likes to do what the president likes to do. so he basically is the champion of confessions. one of the remarkable things i saw in the article is it said the president sometimes calls sean hannity or fox news so he can get around aids in the white house knows what's going on.

it can be really tough. so any of these things that are out there, whether it's his tweets where we can read his thoughts it's an open door. the goal whether it's the chinese or the russians is to influence the president through friends. that was remarkable. >> one thing we have learned about this president is he's the definition of open source. every thought bubble, maybe that's just an extension of that. as always, thank you for sharing your expertise and explaining it to us. ahead, the florida governor's debate, boy, it got so fiery some folks wondered if it was going to get physical. we'll be right back. have medicare, you have an important choice to make. you can purchase a separate drug

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you. if you want the facts, call the toll free number on your screen right now and get the free decision guide from humana. humana has a large network of doctors and hospitals, so call to find out if your doctor is in our network. see if you can save on your prescriptions and get our free decision guide. licensed humana sales agents are standing by. pick up the phone and call humana today. welcome back. the midterm debates had heat in the sunshine state last night. the debate start ed with both candidates decrying the toxic political environment and collapse of civil discourse. ask then the attacks started. he hit him over the report that he accepted a.m. hamilton tickets from an jushd cover fbi

agent for free who was posing as a business developer. >> he was getting things he shouldn't have gotten. then they got a $2 million contract from the city of tallahassee. that's what corruption is. when you get something you shouldn't have and give something to people trying to influence you. that's wrong. he's not told the truth about any of that. >> later on he acaused him of being supported by racists, even, and we want to warn you specialing out the racial slur he says was used by the supporter. >> he's spoken with neonazis helping him out. he's accepted a contribution and would not return it from someone who referred to the president as a muslim. he said no when asked to return the money. he's using it to fund the ads. i'm simply saying the racists believe he's a racist.

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to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. what a joke look at who finances his employer, a crooked lobbyist tied to pelosi. he paid his bills and fund his campaign because feehan is a pelosi liberal. >> welcome back. that was an ad that vilifies george soros. that ad story running yesterday after an suspected a explosive device was found in his mailbox this week. if this was the closing message

of the mid-term campaign, this incident, and i hesitate to say it will be, it's october 25th these days. i apologize for my space time -- 12 days, caravan was october surprise one. this is october surprise two. where does this go? >> you know, is this going to be a motivating voting issue for people? it's hard to see that. except it does shine a light on what president trump's biggest deficiency is, and he just doesn't step forward and do what's needed. and i think this has been something that's been made abjectly clear repeatedly and most recently 12 days before the mid-term. does that affect how people are going to vote? hard for me to see that. especially as you say 12 days is trump time. >> i had a colleague share with me something a strategist shared with her who said the most important group of people right now are remorseful women.

remorseful republican women. this could be a trigger. >> my gut was telling me this is quite a big deal. unless there's another october surprise, which is quite possible because it broke the fear dynamic that the republicans -- they were getting some traction with it scaring people, which was their closing argument. and instead it's gone back to a check trump or don't check trump, check trump or enable trump. if you vote for republicans you are in effect enabling trump. if you vote for the democrats you're checking trump. that's a much better frame for democrats, and this helps introduce that in the debate. >> i'm not sure that describes what happened to republicans that may have had the brakes slammed on here, which is republicans had a big victory. conservatives had a big victory. had kavanaugh gone down, republicans and conservatives

would have felt depressed, demoralized, felt the media ganged up on him, the media ganged up on trump. and the charge came from the victory. and that's an upbeat thing, not an downbeat thick. that's reminding them even if they don't like trump, they like the judges. this changes that subject just as the caravan sort of helped trump get back to a core subject that was helpful to him. this totally derails both of those narratives and turns this into a different story. >> just follow trump's twitter feed today, right? it's been interesting. >> he was stepping off the stage where he made up, you know, a policy announcement about medicare drug prices. as he was stepping off the stage he put out a tweet about the car van and said caravan turn around. he is ready for this to be the discussion again. and certainly there will be conservative media that amplifies it and perhaps he can

put this back on center stage. but you're right, something's changed. there's been sort of a break in the fever. and whether it can develop up to the point where it was 12 days ago, hard to say. 12 days is a long time in trump time. >> and this is part of something, does this make people -- uh, i want to walk away from the political process or does it galvanize it? >> i think democrats are pretty galvanized. there's a lot of energy out there on the democratic side. does that mean there's going to be a blue wave? i don't think so. i think they could still blow it. a lot of these are still very close. a lot of toss ups all over the place, but people are finally paying attention. there was a long time when they didn't really feel yet that it was on. >> okay, if democratic enthusiasm has been through the roof and it has been, it's been

gaining. that is what will help democrats. >> great panel, guys. much appreciated. i feel like i'm at the bar in new york. up ahead, we end on a high note. [woman 1] this... [woman 2] ..this... [man 1] ...this is my body of proof. [man 2] proof of less joint pain... [woman 3] ...and clearer skin. [man 3] proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... [woman 4] ...with humira. [woman 5] humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible

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broadcasted an episode crime squad. and in the credits was the name john t. williams, jr. it was his first ever on-screen credit as a composer. even if somehow you don't know his name, you definitely know his work. we could play those two notes from jaws, the march from indiana jones or just about anything from the star wars movies. then again those songs are pretty expensive to play on tv, aren't they? but there is one song of his we can play. and if you watch us here regularly you hear it on monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, and you definitely hear it on sundays as well. >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> that's right. john williams composed the "meet the press" theme way back in 1985. he's also the maestro behind

many other nbc themes. if you have john williams on your team you get to brag about it every once in a while. 60 years later and he's still pitch perfect. the beat with ari melber starts right now. tonight we continue our ongoing coverage of these pipe bomb mailings and the ensuing fbi hunt around the nation along with several other big stories. later i'm going to speak to trump's former ambassador to mexico who's discussing what's wrong with his leadership and the potential break in the russia probe, mueller obtaining evidence that may show a trump ally knew about the clinton e-mail hack. and donald trump leaving the door open for chinese spies to listen to his phone calls. we begin with our top story, the president's new response to mystery of these explosive devices sent to democratic leaders, resistance figures and a tru