do the wrong thing. he either doesn't know or doesn't care about some of the longstanding principles that define the office he currently holds. for instance, don't politicize a visit to our nation's soldiers. he's guilty of that after slamming democrats while pushing his domestic policy agenda, the wall, in front of a captive audience at al assad air base yesterday. there's more to trump's visit than just the destruction of norms, important as they are. for all donald trump's bluster about how he opposed the iraq war when he actually didn't, he seems intent on repeating the mistakes of the past. 15 years after we first invaded by not bothering to meet with iraqi leadership. if trump wants the men and women of the middle east defeat isis and not sacrifice american blood and treasure, shouldn't he sit down with iraq's democratically elected leadership. the iraqis were insulted enough to call it a violation of their

sovereignty and may soon take some action. from the associated press -- politicians from both sides of iraq's political divide are calling on parliament to vote to expel u.s. troops. approximately 5,000 u.s. troops are stationed in iraq as part of the coalition against the islamic state group. that's an alarming proposition considering that just yesterday trump raised the possibility of using iraq as the base if we wanted to do something in syria. joining us now, retired u.s. air force brigadier general robert givens. and here at the table, sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast, karine jean-pierre, move on.org and matt gallagher who has wrote a wonderful book called "kaboom" and it's about his time in iraq. so to start out, i want to go to you, matt, because you were there as a rank and file soldier or a young infantry captain, rather. what do you make of donald trump's behavior yesterday and the rally that he held and how

the troops responded. >> well, president trump breaking through norms of the military relationship is not new. what really caught me off guard was the troops there. some of them bringing red hat "make america great again" hats. some had trump flags. certainly i don't think it's worth chastizing junior soldiers for being excited for their commander in chief being there. but it is department of defense regulation that there is a department of defense regulation that forbids such paraphernalia being exhibited while in uniform. this really crossed that line pretty openly. and if i had to guess, some senior officers got chewed out and embarrassed last night because of this. and when senior officers get chewed out and embarrassed, that means some noncommissioned officers are laying down hard, clear guidance to those junior personnel and that's probably been going on all day there at al assad air force base in iraq.

>> and talk about norms aside because at the end of the day that was behavior. it was our own troops. i want to go to my friend rob who has been a great tutor to me on all things military related and talk to him about what donald trump's proposed shift in strategy means if he wants to prosecute the war on isis from iraq instead of having troops on the ground in syria. >> well, good afternoon, elise. i think what it means is that we'll take more of an air power cent rick strategy where we'll use our air pour from a variety of sources to apply isis as it develops. we may not have the intelligence we had with people on the ground but hopefully we'll be able to maintain some form of connection and some sort of relationship with those folks that do remain behind. possibly even with u.s. operatives. who knows. that will allow us to be able to do what we need to do.

the object sieive is not to con territory but the target which is isis. >> donald trump did manage to accomplish something amazing yesterday, though. he seemingly united the left and the right in condemnation of his behavior. what's your take? >> i mean, it's not surprising. which is unfortunate at this time that all we continue to say that things that donald trump is not surprising and he does not stick with the norms and he does not stick with protocol. what he did yesterday and continues to do is cause instability in our military. he takes the bidding of dictators instead of listening to our generals and to experts like general mattis and he does things over and over, like lying and making it very partisan, talking about how the military, the troops have gotten a 10% increase. more than they've gotten in over a decade. >> we have the sound of that

about the pay raise. >> you just got one of the biggest pay raises you've ever received. unless you don't want it. you haven't gotten one in more than ten years. more than ten years. and we got you a big one. plenty of people that came up and said we could make it smaller. we could make it 3%, 2%, 4%. i said, no. make it 10%. make it more than 10%. because it's been a long time. it's been more than ten years. >> so yesterday did he announce just this major policy proclamation that everyone in the u.s. military is getting a 10% raise or was it just not true? >> i guess we all missed it. no, it's -- it's funny but it's also like bizarre. this is not true for the viewers who are just tuning in. pay raises have been happening on the regular, including during the recession. and the raise that trump and congress appropriated this year was not 10%. it was standard raise. i don't know why he feels the

need to embellish like this or to just flat out lie if you want to call it what it is. especially because what was the purpose of yesterday was to be somewhat of a triumphant first trip overseas to a military outpost. and that would have been suitable in its own right. he would have cleared the very low bar a commander in chief needs to clear but he feels the need to embellish on top of that. one thing i go back to and this is in the comments about the pay raises but also patrick shanahan, the incoming acting dod secretary is how much everything in his world view is tied towards the issue of money and finances. with the military, it's not about the strategic mission. it's about the pay raise that you're getting. with shanahan, he will be good in the post because he cut great deals while at boeing. and donald trump sees the world through the lens of money. and that's why he's rationalized the drawdown in syria and tons of different things, including keeping the acting secretary of defense.

it's just an interesting and cynical way to view the world. >> i want to read a quote now about the question of sovereignty and iraq which is separate from our own domestic issues that, of course, donald trump managed to insert into the debate. several iraqi political leaders portrayed trump's unannounced visit as a violation to the country's sovereignty. at least some of the iraqi discontent appears to be a result of the way the u.s. government set up trump's visit. according to my colleagues, the iraqi prime minister refused to meet trump at al assad air base after not being given notice and said the two leaders talked on the phone but that did not stop iraqi critics of the u.s. military presence there from lashing out at trump accusing him of disrespecting the country's leadership and norms. rob, i feel like we've been there before. we've seen this script of what happens when u.s. leaders aren't working in close consultations with iraqis about what they want for the future of their country. are you concerned that the iraqi

political fortunes could blow back against any of donald trump's effort to wage the war in syria from iraq? >> well, clearly, that is a problem. and you know, the big issue that we have to learn to deal with is, iraq is a sovereign country. our forces are there at their request and at their agreeance. the days of the invasion are long over and so finding a way forward with iraq to build the relationship we need to and see them as a -- an ally or at least, you know, a partner in this endeavor is essential to a way forward. and treating them with a bit of respect and, vice versa, of course, is important. but we need to be able to engage with them at all levels. what we don't know is what type of engagement went on between the two governments. certainly we're seeing the external issues of this. but hopefully -- >> and john bolton has tweeted out that they invited the new iraqi prime minister to washington for a visit.

>> well, that would be great if he would come, obviously, but finding a way forward to realize that iraq is a sovereign country and that we've got responsibilities with that but they have responsibilities in hosting us as well, too, i think is an important thing for people to realize. >> matt, it's been ten years since you last served in iraq. do you feel this is deja vu and we're still discussing a lot of the same issues as in previous years past? and we're also still there. >> absolutely. we're 17 years into this forever war, and it does seem like time and time again we're just repeating the old failures just to learn the same old lesson. you know, having president trump fly in to al asad air base and claim that we're going to stay loyal too the iraq nation without -- >> and he spoke about winning, too. >> absolutely, winning. that zero-sum world view of his is now infamous. it's very clear. sam was talking earlier about

his political ideology of money. he's sdooconstantly doing the opposite of what obama did. obama went into syria, so he's going to pull out. that's good enough for him. obama withdrew from iraq. that's probably good enough reason for him to be staying in. that's just not good enough. that's not even close to good enough. and these really complexed nuanced foreign policy matters. a lot of sharper minds than those molded in new york real estate meetings have been founded by these issues of war and peace and him just kind of lurching to and fro to try to change the headlines is going to get a lot of people hurt and killed. >> i will say this for him. on the foreign policy front, he's been talking about what would be classically called an isolationist foreign policy for years and years and years. pulling back from the world stage has been the one consistent geopolitical philosophy that he's held. so it's not totally a surprise to me that this past week when he has shed himself of the

influences like the mattises and mcmasters of the tworworld you t do this, it's not a surprise he's acting on impulse. and it's not a surprise he doesn't adopt that long-term thinking. it doesn't seem to be part of his constitution and dna. it's surprised me it took this long to get there. now what is interesting is he said i'm not going to leave iraq. i'll leave syria but keep a footprint in iraq. i haven't seen any good reporting to explain why he feels comfort in staying in iraq but discomfort in afghanistan and syria. i'd love to know if there's any actual thinking and logic or whether it's just anti-obama impulse. >> it's baffling because there isn't a coherent foreign policy and you see how republicans of all stripes have really struggled to respond to donald trump. if they want to be supportive, but they are more hawkish, they find themselves in this really uncomfortable position of defending donald trump when the facts are not, you know, backing up what their preferred ideology

is. what consensus do you see on the left among emkrdemocrats as to they envision foreign policy being as the primary season approaches? >> it's certainly not what donald trump is doing. i think to your point, sam, he is -- he has been really clear. he's an isolationist, and he cozies up to dictators. even with syria, it's been reported that he spoke -- he spoke to -- oh, my gosh. vice president erdogan and then decided he was going to pull out. but the problem really is that he is not proven to be a commander in chief that is needed for our country. he's proven to be weak, incoherent, and no comprehension as to what we need and how we're going to move forward. yes, do we need to step out of iraq? absolutely. but what's the protocol? what's the process? even in syria.

there was no protocol or process. hence, that's why general mattis left. so there is no plan except i'm going to be an isolationist. we're not going to help anybody else. people have to pay us or do their share, and we're gone. we're out of here. and by the way, anything that i talk to about dictators about, i agree, i'm going to move forward with that. and that's -- puts us in a dangerous situation with our adversaries and shutting our allies. >> this dichotomy where he's hyping a national security threat at the southern border that doesn't really exist if you talk to any experts and saying we have to shuffle resources down there, put the military down there, build the wall at all costs. at the same time saying there's no national security threat in syria. isis has been eliminated. he's setting up this contrast that doesn't really have any root in fact but it does comport to his world view which is the enemy is right there at the south and mexican immigrants. >> it's just the dichotomy is just crazy. >> rob, i want to give you the final word. what do you take away as the

significance of yesterday's visit? >> i think the significance of yesterday's visit is that we as a people have to start paying more attention to the issues of foreign policy, especially with respect to the ongoing combat operations throughout the middle east. we talked about syria, iraq, afghanistan as if they're isolated incidents and they're not. they're all tied together. we need a comprehensive foreign policy and national strategy to deal with the issues of the middle east and how we work with players there and adversaries at the same time. and until we as a people started engaging our elected officials more, we'll never get the product we deserve and need for all those men and women still in uniform. >> very well put and i'd feel better if you were in a foreign policy position, rob. thank you for coming today and thank you, mautt, for coming today and i encourage everyone to check out your book "kaboom." the president was back in

action today. according to him, the federal workers affected by the shutdown who he claimed wanted him to hold out for the border wall. apparently now they're all democrats? plus, as the contest to replace trump in 2020 begins to heat up, has a front-runner already emerged? and why 2018 was a very bad, no good year for the nra. gentle means everything,

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trump has a certain intensity when it comes to furthering the political segregation of our country. be it by class, gender, race or, of course, by ideology. so it comes as no surprise that

on the sixth day of a partial government shutdown, we're roughly 800,000 federal workers have been affected, trump seems intent on dividing. here's his tweet from this morning. have the democrats finally realized that we desperately need border security and a wall on the southern border. need to stop drugs, human trafficking, gang members and criminals from coming into our country. do the des realize that most of the people not getting paid are democrats? democrat ii iic senator mark wa responded, this is outrageous. federal employees don't go to work wearing red or blue jerseys. the president is treating them like poker chips in one of his failed casinos. and jim who loves paris but is now scared to visit the city of lights who then are the mysterious federal government workers who have been telling trump they want the wall. are they democrats, too? joining us at the table, republican strategist susan del

persio. sam and karine are still here. where do we start? >> you don't believe in gin? >> i'm sad because paris is lovely and i want jim to keep going on vacation. >> he makes up people. there's no federal workers who are calling trump like hold firm on the wall. it's a figment of his imagination and used as a rhetorical device to try to win him some public relations points. it's crazy. if a federal worker wanted to contact the president, i don't know how they'd go about doing it. >> it would be amazing accessibility. >> you are the commander in chief. >> if you have contacted the president, let me know how to get in contact with him, too. >> susan, it looks like the shutdown is going to continue until next week. the house and senate aren't going to vote tomorrow. how bad is this for trump politically, or is it bad? >> oh, it's bad. and it's going to get worse. i mean, one thing to keep in mind is this is not nancy

pelosi's first rhodesodeo. she's been around the block. donald trump has no idea what's in store for him. even if he is listening to those people around him and trying to prepare him, he's getting ready for a world of hurt. and i say that because there's no reason for the democrats to negotiate down to him at this point. they are going to pass the senate cr. they're going to get it through and say, hey, mr. president, it's up to you if you want to open up the government. and that's where he stands. >> this is what trump has done not only to the country and to government workers but to the republican party. it's like a double hostage situation which is the government workers are hoftsage to trump's political needs. trump is himself hostage to that 35 or so percent of republicans for whom the border wall is a sake red totem and they're holding the rest of -- not just the country but also the other republicans hostage to this fixation of theirs that if --

unless we have a border wall, mayhem is going to ensue. somehow the republican has survived for 242 years okay. but now we need a border wall. this is what trumpism does. >> can i say how terrible of a goerk negotiator he is? >> that's going to hurt. >> he hasn't made -- >> he was given -- put on the table $25 billion for this wall which something we didn't agree with. a lot of the folks on the left did not want this. but it was for giving, you know, daca dreamers a path to citizenship. democrats said, okay. there was a bipartisanship and he said no to it because he was told it's amnesty. you can't do this. now he has zero, nothing. to your point with nancy pelosi going to be the speaker of the house and a world of pain headed his way. >> he has yet to go into a negotiation without backing out of it. republicans can't take him at his word. democrats can't take him at his word. what's also amazing and to

brets's point about the 35% on the wall, when you look at the trump rallies, go back and see what people said. you really think he's going to build a wall and mexico is going to pay for it? nah, but they loved the rhetoric and they like the idea of the fight on illegal immigration. so all he has to do is call it a smart wall, get some technology in there that everyone knows they need and call it a day. >> that's a really important point. and there was a piece in "the post" that captured, is donald trump hostage to the idea of the wall and of his base or is he hostage to his own ego. and it read, you know, what does a face-saving compromise look like? right now it's hard to say. but if there's a glimmer of hope it might lie in trump's willingness to describe any result, even the most abjective beat as a spectacular win for him that was only possible because of his limitless brilliance. >> he's already sort of

positioned himself that way because subtly he's been calling it steel slats, not a wall. and he said if i call it this, maybe democrats will support it, as if they're not privy to the whole game here. what's interesting from the macro standpoint is i spent the day talking to people who -- inside the white house, allies of the white house, and they feel good about where they stand right now. they think that when congress reconvenes in january because everyone assumes it's going to go to january now, that they are going to be playing on their side of the 50 yard line. this will be a debate over border security and wall funding and not over what nancy pelosi wants to do which is ethics reform and government oversight or congressional oversight over the federal branch. so they are feeling somewhat emboldened. i'm just relaying what i'm saying. >> first the opening of the government. that's the first thing. you can have a conversation for the, what, six weeks the cr lasts for but you can't until you open the government. >> to bret's point if he keeps

playing to this 35% and they keep telling him go, go, go and you are doing a great job and this is where the debate should be, then, you quo know, all indications point to a prolonged government shutdown. >> he can't win and can't capitulate. his best sbet bet is to say the an invisible wall and no one can come over and they will be zapped. >> the office of innovation headed up by jared kushner and there we go. >> and there are no nukes in north korea. >> everything solved. >> if you declare victory and come home, you've won, right? at least until as long as you believe it. >> oh, my. we're going to move on. up next, with over a year to go before the first democratic 2020 primary, the list of potential candidates is getting longer by the day. it appears the knives are already out for one potential candidate in particular. gentle means everything,

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the 2020 democratic presidential primary is shaping up to be the baskin robbins of democratic contenders. you can pick a different candidate every day of the month and still have several to sample. too many is its own unique set of problems. during the republican 2016 campaign, other operatives and i bemoaned this rivaled tinder and it wasn't the best path to a quality nominee as we see now. perhaps a winning candidate just has the it factor from the beginning. despite all the other candidates, donald trump managed to decimate and dominate the 2016 republican primary from the moment he rhodes the ode the es his first campaign speech. beto o'rourke has garnered momentum before he's even announced he's running. i want to ask my panel. is it already beto versus

everyone snels selse? sam, susan and kareen are still here. >> if you look at a lot of the polling, it's not so much who people are going to vote for or who is going to win. it's almost like whom do they want in the field? and that's what you're seeing. they want young and old, new, somebody that's not even in the race yet, and i think that says the field is just really wide open and that's where we are right now. the reason you see beto and biden and sanders, understandably so leading, is because they have the name i.d. and i think once people jump in and they are contested and we have a contested election but they are really challenged and build their campaign and put together their platform, then i think we'll see some shifting. >> i have one quote, though, from jeff row who was ted cruz's chief strategist during that run going through my head as this

process is starting to play out. jeff said the democrats don't have anybody like him. i've seen all of them. they don't have anyone of his caliber on the national stage. i pray for the soul of anyone who has to run against him in iowa in 453 days. >> the democrats have lots of people who can win elections, and that's one big issue with beto o'rourke. i think democrats also have lots of candidates who are going to be able to capture the heart of the party. he's such a good speaker. let's face it. he's a good looking guy that beto is not where the democratic party is in terms of being a progressive. he's much more conservative. democrats learn more about his policy positions and some of the issues that come out of his past and his personal life, they'll take a much closer look. where was a junior senator from illinois names barack obama in december of 2006? where was his name?

he caught fire because he had tremendous political talent that just grabbed the party by the heart. and that is going to happen in this cycle as well. we're just months away from it. >> to that point and going back to the 2016 primary, donald trump succeeded in a place where people wanted anything but the establishment. he was able to harness that energy, and it was base icalica conducive to that. you look toward 2020 and the democrats is people need two things. they need that heart and it factor and inspiring factor, but when you look at the dangerous situation donald trump has put us in, we need depth and experience. and someone -- and that's why i think you see biden and people talk about the two of them as a potential ticket because you need both. the democratic party has a lot of different options to go and the whole spectrum from

progressive to moderate. but they want two things, and that's going to be very hard to find in one person. >> and although i know polls are meaningless at this stage, let's put up a poll and look. let's look. here are recent poll where some of the candidates are. and you have joe biden at the top. >> looks good for senator someone entirely new there. 59%. doing well. i have a simplistic theory about this which is that elections tend to be reactive. so you have george w. bush who promised to be sort of a more moral character than bill clinton. barack obama who promised to be a unifying figure. you have donald trump who promised to make america great again, following obama's sort of more revolutionary, progressive vision. so what is the reaction to trump? is it experience? or is it post partisanship? what is it?

i don't really know and that's what democrats are going to be sorting out. do you go with someone that's been around awhile? >> sanity and moderation. >> which candidates might fit that? >> they're not on that list. why isn't amy klobuchar on that list. of all the senators in the kavanaugh hearing, she came out by far the best. a midwestern democrat able to speak fluently in a purple state. some real experience. maggie hassan has gubernatorial experience. you'll see a lot of candidates that people haven't yet heard of but who are going to be terrific. >> the only thing i would add is the three people we've been talking about -- biden, beto and bernie are white men. >> that's exactly where i wanted to go, especially looking at the midterms in the south. the democrats overlooked a big opportunity in the south in some races where they just didn't

deploy their full assets. there was a column arguing that black candidates may have a strategic advantage in the democratic primary. not because they'll automatically win black voters but they won't have to demonstrate the same social solidarity. they can stay somewhat silent on race rather than vocalizing it without triggering the cycle of polarization that clinton experienced. how important do you think race is going to be? >> i think it is going to be important. if you look at the last two years and you look at off year elections, special elections, midterms, the voters that have come out consistently have been african-american women. black voters. and we saw latino voters and young people coming out in the midterms and suburban white moms coming out as well leaving the republican party. so, yes, race is going to be a key role, a key point. and you hear a lot of -- behind

the scenes you hear a lot of these candidates reaching out to black political operatives wanting to pull them into the campaign. so they are aware of this. you hear this from elizabeth warren and others doing such things. and i think that's key and it's important because that is part of -- a big part of the democratic base that's carried the base the last two years, in particular, and if you do not -- if you are not specific to them, if you don't talk to them, you don't have policies and platforms to them, you'll lose them. that's where the energy is in the democratic base right now. >> they're not always necessarily super progressive. people don't realize. they look at it as a group -- >> when you go into the south and midwest, you see people who are somewhat conservative. somewhat moderate. so threading that needle for the candidate is really difficult. >> and even with barack obama, african-american voters were not there until after he won iowa. so, yeah, they are very careful. they are paying attention. and you just have to really, you

know, make sure you're talking to them. >> thank you so much, everyone. now a big question is just when do these candidates start announcing? and do they have enough cash to sustain the race? >> when the government opens. how about that? >> who knows when that will be. susan, thanks for spending time with us. in still ahead -- the many reason yes this ws why this was year for the nra. ♪

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to every politician taking donations from the nra, shame on you! >> no longer can you take money from the nra. no longer can you fly under the radar doing whatever it is you want to do because we are coming after you. >> they might preach nra. they might preach g.u.n., but

we're preparing register, educate, vote. >> are they going to arm the person wearing the mickey mouse costume at disney? this is what the national rifle association wants and we will nostand for it. >> the mass shooting at their high school in february marked a turning point in the gun safety debate. we saw over a million people protest during the march for our lives and many state legislatures passed stricter gun laws. further proof of the attitude shift, the nra has seen its financial situation worsen in the era of donald trump. the daily beast write, rarely has the nra had so staunch an ally in the white house but the group which built political heft on the back of obama-era threats to key gun rights, it's become a lightning rod in the still-raging debate over gun control in the u.s. several democrats ran on pledges to go after the gun lobby while in office.

joining us, my friend dave cullen. he has a new book incumbent out in february. did the parkland kids change the equation when it comes to gun control? >> i don't think the nra has figured out what hit them. and they have not figured out what to do with these kids. i called the final chapter about the midterms the third rail because one of the authorities, robert spitzer, a professor, used that in his "new york times" op-ed saying that for a generation, 60% to 70% have voted on guns as a primary issue but almost on one side and there was no balance there. they could throw some elections because of that complete imbalance. many groups tried but couldn't bring up the vote. this is the first time since the 2000 election with al gore that has completely changed that. and the nbc exit poll showed 60%

were voting in favor of gun safety. and they really totally changed the equation. so it's no longer the third rail where every politician won't go near it and feels like it's a death nell. that's over because this election showed it somewhat in the reverse. >> i found it interesting that very quietly, just last week, the trump administration banned bump stocks. and the nra publicly very supportive of bump stocks and you look at now the pro-gun group, gun owners of america, they are suing the trump administration over this ban. and they are saying that these dangerous regulations can go much further than just bump stocks. eric pratt, the executive owner of gun owners of america said the goal for the anti-gun left ultimately not just banning bump stocks but putting points on the board towards its goal of banning civilian ownership of all firearms. is that argument resonating? >> look, this tells you everything about the nra and the

gun lobbies in general which is they've become so extreme in their defense of any sort of weapon, any sort of weapon should be a constitutional right. but they've lost the center of american politics. i was reminded of this after george h.w. bush died and people were remembering some of the things he did. one thing he did in 1995 after the bombing of the oklahoma city federal building is he renounced his life-long nra membership after a then fact totem named wayne lapierre who came up in the ranks was denouncing federal agents. i might be slightly wrong about the incident that prompted this letter, but it says something that bush, life-long nra member would disassociate himself. now a lot of other center of the road moderates are feeling exactly the same way. we have a second amendment which came into existence when you

could fire maybe one round a minute. now you can fire, what, 90, more than that, 125 using bump stocks. that's how you kill 58 people in las vegas. and i think americans are saying this no longer makes sense. >> interesting history with the gun owners of america group. when they were putting together the crime bill, at the beginning stages, the nra was marginally okay with what was happening. they were ago to be part of the discussion so they wouldn't go too far. and they weren't going to raise the congressman that was going to shep herd it through the judiciary committee. what happened is the gun owners of america came out swinging against the nra calling them swishy for not opposing this completely. and the nra buckled. they went after the democrats for supporting the assault weapons ban, the '94 crime bill. it led to this methodology that the nra was this huge political power and all these democrats lost these seats. this was the history of the nra and catapult to becoming a much more partisan institution.

that's accelerated through the age of obama where they warned of the coming gun confiscations and into the age of trump where they've become almost one party oriented. every marginally moderate democrat that they used to support, they backed away from them in the 2018 elections. and what they've ended up now is being a partisan group that can no longer rely on democratic support. and that's very significant because you do not have the political cover to do things that you want to do when you are marginalized as a partisan institution. and you have seen their financials that people are not giving to them as much anymore. and that's how they make their money is by doanatinations and . >> do you see the democrats completely abandoning the nra as why they are down $55 million in the coffers? >> i think that's a big part of it. and to your point, these parkland students really are the heroes. and so they were relentless. they became activists, politically involved. and not only that, we had

something else that played in their favor was technology. you have social media. that played a big role in this. that really, you know, hurt the nra that is now widely extreme now and then they were -- really helped out donald trump in his election. and democrats, those moderate democrats you were talking about, have left them, especially in 2018. that's what you're seeing now. >> i have always been a second amendment supporter, but bump stocks? no way. we don't need high-volume magazines. the nra has moved completely away from people who support the right to bear arms, but have just taken it on a ridiculous level. and i admire the parkland children so much. parkland students. they're not children. they are teenagers, young adults. they stuck with it. it's so easy to be cynical in this era. and they stuck with their guns. and do they still have the passion, dave, almost a year later? >> most of them do. they are really still at it. i think you hit it right. one of the things the nra --

none of these groups have figured out. it's not just one charismatic person. it's emma gonzalez, david hall but so many different really crucial people behind the scenes. and one of the reasons this is different is because cameron kaske who started it, the first night he didn't have a dream and this vision to do this thing. the 50 night is he was signing up on twitter and facebook, is saying, i need more ideas. i need more help. he went to bed saying that and he woke up with people coming to his house and responding over social media, that's where they all came to his house, all these different people. they have a talent pool that nobody had done this before and now you've got like brilliant people on different things. jackie koren is this master implementer who makes it happen. the other people who are amazing on tv. you have people who, you know, how to make the films. we've got -- they are hitting it from multiple different sides. in the past we've had leaders of a revolution uprising. this is a different collaborative model.

it's like 25 people that are hitting them in difference directions. >> i'm lucky enough to have had a sneak peek of the story and it's exceptional and i really look forward to it being unleashed to the world in february. the parkland students really did something. they didn't just sit around and talk about change. they have caused it. and they are a political force to be reckoned with in our country. thank you, dave, for coming and sharing that with us. coming up, it's the first time in years hillary clinton hasn't been the most admired woman in america. we'll tell you who ended her historic run, next.

you can choose hope over fear. you can choose a bigger, more prosperous, more generous, kinder version of america. >> what we need to do is bridge the gap between caring about that kind of stuff and actually doing something about it. >> this is one of those pivotal moments when every one of us as citizens of the united states need to determine who it is we are. >> it wasn't a quiet year for barack obama and michelle which he will obama. the former first lady has been drawing massive crowds for her

book tour. both had the distinction for being the most admired woman and man in america. she ended hillary clinton's 17 year run in the top spot. h i'm sure donald trump doesn't mind at all. i'm sure he doesn't mind at all. >> he loves obama so much. >> it's a rigged vote. there were millions of people who were illegal aliens who voted. >> has your opinion of barack obama changed in the year of trump? >> of course former presidents tend to improve when they are no longer in the political fray. it happened to -- with the exception of bill clinton on account of metoo. most former presidents improve. i always admired obama when he was president for my policy differences because i thought he carried the dignity of the

office impeccably. i always felt he was my president irrespective of our policy differences. i was a hard time feeling that way about donald trump. he doesn't fill the symbolic spaces of the presidency at all. other aspects of his presidency, i disagree with. they look statesman like next to what we're getting now. >> michelle obama, her political stock could not be any higher. there's no way she will ever run. >> she's not going to run. i do not believe she's going to run. she's said it and pretty honest about that in the past. i think the obamas are truly living their best lives. they are incredibly authentic. they're real. you feel like they are friends of yours when you hear them. she's selling out in these stadium, like thousands of people. my favorite part in that story is that it's just only like the

13th time that a incoming president has not been at the top. another little dig to donald trump there. >> is it more evidence that donald trump is the most divisive president in recent history? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> not that complicated. >> she's nhe's not even capturi own side. you have half the people that have voted for you. his own voters have abandoned him. >> he's got a side but it's not that big. >> she should be. i was reading her book. it's marvelous. >> it's an amazing book. >> we're going to take a pause and let's take our last break. we'll be right back. and let's take our last break. we'll be right back. is now in session. and... adjourned. business loans for eligible card members up to fifty thousand dollars, decided in as little as 60 seconds. the powerful backing of american express.

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mtp daily starts right now. thank you. if it's thursday, it's a presidency in crisis. good evening. welcome to mtp daily. we have got a busy show tonight. like i said yesterday, this is not your typical holiday news cycle. we have new developments in naua number of stories. they point toward a presidency veering toward a possible series of political disasters. first the shutdown as critical government agencies remain closed for the sixth day. the president's negotiating position is about to get worse when democrats take the house. the president's twitter feed today combined with the latest