my thanks to my guests and all of you for watching, that does it for our hour, i'm nicole wallace, "mtp daily" starts now. >> if it is friday, the president may need a reality check. good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington. just like groundhog day every day these days begins the say way in washington with us asking wrornt the president's words matter. if they do he may have found the solution to his border crisis.

just pretend to build a wall. talking the president seriously has become an exercise in abs d absurdi absurdity. today the president told reporters that construction on his border wall was ahead of schedule and nearly completed. >> the chant should be "finish the wall" as opposed to build a wall. >> we have not declared a national emergency and we're already building a lot of wall. >> we're building a wall and a lot of wall. we're ready to give out big money with contracts with money on hand and money that comes in. >> that was the president today, let me fact check this, no new sections of the wall have been built. congress has not authorized any new funds for the president's wall. we had a 35 day shut down because of that problem. congressionalnegotiations.

how is the president paying for all of his new wall? let me explain that at our alternate reality camera. after claiming it was nearly finished he said that congress has giveen him the money the entire time. >> have you found the money -- >> we have a lot of money that's why we're building it. >> do you need appropriations from congress to build all of the wall you think it is necessary. >> we're appropriated. we have a lot of appropriation, it has already been done. you can see where i'm going here. it is absurd to say that congress appropriated all of the money the president needs to build the wall he wants to build. there is no new wall, none. there is no new money, none. there is no support right now from democrats to do that. we had a 35 day shut down because of that.

no appropriating of the money. how does the president explain this one. meet me one more time at the alternate reality camera. after saying it was being funded and constructed, donald trump claimed there was an underground movement among democrats that want him to build his wall. >> in all fairness to the democrats, many of them want the wall. they're just dieing to say what they want to say, but they can't say it as well as they would be able to if they were allowed to do it. >> you might ask where do we even cover what the president says. he is the president with power other how we all live our lives. you might choose to ignore his words, but there is a huge counpart of the country that won't. we're not in the job of sensorship. first amendment means something to us, but we're in the job of exposing what powerful leaders

say and do. joining me now is peter baker, a chief new york columnist. here at the table with me is howard fineman. peter, i start with you because you have the same challenge that duo many times. you had it yesterday in interviewing the president when he says things that are provably not true and we deal with this all of the time. i guess the best part is to try to help explain why is he doing this? why is it important to him to make people think the wall is already being built and the money is already there? >> any time you want to interview the president you have to go in with a skeptical eye. we now have a full-time fact

checker here, and we have a fact check online that helps readers make sense of what they heard, point out facting that might not be part of what he said. where it might be false, and that is a necessary thing. president trump has not gotten where he is with an obsession to precision. what he is talking about often is trying to find a way to appeal to his base, telling the base i'm working on this. he is working on replacing some old barriers previously approved under the bush administration. does he or doesn't he need money for a wall? if he is building it why are we having this fight. >> i tend to agree. i think the president thinks perceived, fake progress matters

to his base. maybe the base needs to hear that. the president knows that 33% of the republican voters and the fee is that is where the idea is watched. that is where they believe thing things are going. have that tunnel vision. don't think about it, i'm just te telling you his back is up against a wall and he is telling people that i'm going to find a way to get money for the wall. he is still playing with the idea of a national emergency. you have to declare a national emergency and i could just keep saying it is being built.

>> let me play part of the interview of the president and the in additional emergency idea. >> i set the table, set the stage, for doing what i'm going to do. >> i'm going to wait until the 15th. i think it is a waste of time. >> there we're finding out that he won't use the state of the union to declare a national emergency. >> what the president is saying often contradicts reality and things that he has said and done. in this case in december before the shut down he said the southern border was very tight that raises the question of why do you need to shut down the government to build a wall on the southern border. now he is saying we just have to finish it. if that is the case why do you need to create a national emergency to finish it.

it doesn't sound like an emergency situation. >> nothing has changed in two years with this presidency. it is the same story over and over again. sometimes it is troops in syria, sometimes in afghanistan, sometimes it is nafta. >> first i would say you knee more dramatic effects for the alternative reality. you have to start low and then you will get really freaky soon enough. but look this is about upset with the system. this is about the emotion. >> they banned logic a long time ago. >> the way -- the way that he is struggling against forces that are requiring him to be contradictory and to struggle,

it is part of the struggle what she saying is legally and illogically under cutting the call for an emergency declaration. by saying that we're already building the wall was scheduling an emergency. i think he will do it and he will relish the court fight that comes from it. having a victory and the fake courts and the media, that is the whole plan. >> he just did it today with his intelligence chiefs. >> yeah, he went to congress, of course.

iron is not currently building a nuclear weapon. all of such which is in credit for his forns policy right now. they called him on the comment in the oval office yesterday. the director of national intelligence, how can you say this. iran is a terrible place, and he says i didn't say that and he said they were misinterpreted by the media. so they say honestly, no, this is not what we said. we think they're a terrible place but they're not building a nuclear weapon right now. so the intelligence teams are

back on again. >> i also want to quote your wife who had a terrific piece today. for trump, the fake world is much better than the real up with. trump's policy is better from trump's point of view, and nancy pelosi will be begging for a wall and spending the dare with sarah huckabee sanders. is the president willfully wanting an alternative view or do the people around him encourage it because they fear his wrath. >> i think the president wants to create an alternate reality. we know there is probably repairs being done on the fence and probably things being done

on the southern border, but for the last two years and before that he has been upsetting himself has he gets angrier and angrier when he could not get a wall. so i feel like he wants to give the cable news and other places clean ups of him saying the wall is built. he is tweeting out pictures of a wall that is not accurate. i think he is just trying to put it out there so people talk about it and might think it is real, but it is not real, it is false. >> someone is saying we're fixing of fences, so this is the beginning of us buldiilding thi wall. i worry that too many people are advising him with things being hidden that might make him explode and only giving him the soft things. >> when he says things that are

are false. he made his advisors, his aides less likely to take his word seriously. it means republicans in congress are less likely to take that serious will too. he seemed to be in favor of sweeping gun control. they all just walked it back. they don't think -- they knew they could. >> he thinks the president thinks that he has a correct relationship with his base that goes beyond his advisors. he thinks that whatever makes his ritices critics mad will pl

his base. and that is how he operates. i'm not defending it in any way. it is the emotional dhaex he thinks he has. hope it goes to the ninth circuit. peter baker, here is what i don't understand. why doesn't he want to lead his own people. if he has such power, why is he afraid to use it. >> in terms of the base, if he has this power, i'm talking about the power of persuasion over this 33%. he never likes to use it. he won't leave them. >> some of his own supporters, his own advisors outside of the

white house have said they try to convince him that he can influence them rather than them have to worry about a backlash from them. he has great credit ability from his base. if he says he is securing the border that he will trust them because they know he has their best instincts at heart. if he says this is a border security package, we'll be doing things that are really, really tough. some of them want him to do that. but he would get a lot of blow back from the right, the ann coulter crowd and that bothers him. >> it is amazing to me, that he is add meating that he is a weak leader, but to me there is nothing weaker than a fear of leading people that you think agree with you.

>> i think it is something to be hold that we have a president who is, in some ways, very worried about conservative talk radio and voices. there is an idea that he backed away from a deal he made with mitch mcconnell that got the shut down started in the first place. he says you fwhee? ann kou and then he says ann coulter doesn't like it so i have to back out. when he has to go to congress to try to make deals, it makes people not take him seriously. the president keeps saying it is a waste of time to have this committee working on this for three weeks. what does that mean for the people every day trying to come up with a solution. >> let me ask that quick question. if you're a congressional republican, what do you do? the president basically just dumped a big chunk of cold fish water on you.

stinky water. >> i think that a lot of republicans went into this knowing that it was not likely to yield a deal. >> but what do do you? >> do you just do what he says and you sign it in disgust. >> we're going to the "emergency" that you will use your alternative reality camera on. >> peter baker, thank you. we'll be back, alternate camera goes by for the rest of the hour. the presidential field of contenders just got bigger and it is making for the most diverse group of candidates in history. t diverse group of candidates in history.

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and the army taught me a lot about commitment. which i apply to my life and my work. at comcast we're commited to delivering the best experience possible, by being on time everytime. and if we are ever late, we'll give you a automatic twenty dollar credit. my name is antonio and i'm a technician at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. together, america, we will rise. i'm cory booker and i'm running for president of the united states of america. >> welcome back, new jersey senator cory booker is now the

eighth democratic candidate. he is the second african-american to somewhere the race and she not thighing away from courting the black vote. he kicked off his campaign on the first day of black history month. he gave his first conference from his front yard in newark. >> what my neighbors are concerned with and what i have heard around the country is that people in america are losing faith that the nation will work for them. they beginning to believe too in folks will be left out or left behind. i'm running for president because i want to address these issues. >>booker and harris's willingness to lean it is right from the far the. that was also half a generation ago, belief it or not. joining me now is cornelle

belcher. i'm panel is staying with us. i should remind folks that cornell was one of the pollsters for team barack obama right from the start. and something that has been interesting is how different it was for barack obama, is it leaning and are you just as an african-american are you surprised? >> i want to say this speaks to the american exceptionalism. when you see this diverse field coming out, america is moving to a better place. when you look at past congress america is moving to a better place. in 2008 we had, you know the ideal that barack obama could not run as a brak candidate and could not go after black voters is different now. and i think that speaks to how

the country is changing, but it also speaks to an important lane in a crowded field. if you tell me where the majority of african-american women will break and break hard, i will tell you who will probably be the democratic nominee. o iowa and new hampshire are important, but when african-americans are breaking for barack obama, he was breaking through. >> there is one thing we may have this time that we have not had before is a fractured african-american vote. kamala harris, corybo booker, a joe biden. if we're splitting it in three, what does that do to this race?

>> i think it makes people have to show their receipts, as millennials would say. you want someone that can show what african-american women want. corey booker today basically said i'm the only u.s. senator living in the inner city. living in an african-american community. he is saying i live here, druni the water here, and it is all about that. >> what i did find interesting is he is saying pay no attention to my title now, i want you to pay attention to my record of mayor of newark. >> i think it also is his attempt to not just avoid washington, but so say who he is. and the fact that he did it from his front yard in newark.

he pins his national reputation on the idea that he helped n newark. that is a powerful mess an. i have to tell you have having covered these for a long time, south carolina is the iowa and new hampshire of what we're talking about. i remember covering barack obama going down to columbia scare before the primary there, a huge rally hosted by oprah win free and basically i was standing there with the obama campaign and it was like okay, this is something, it's over. >> corey booker is fascinating if he got to the general election because he is not near -- he is basically closer certainly side ideologically

closer to bill clinton, but the wall street ties will cut badly for him. >>. >> he talks a lot about unifying the country, healing the country, and there may be an appetite for that and he has a lot of history. that suggests that that is who he really is, but he also did things like says things fun. this is before anyone heard of kristine ford. the demands of being a senate democrat moved him to a passer pad place. >> yeah, he was the next generation of post racial leaders. he is trying to run as more of a

tr giggtraditional democrat. >> i remember, i remember when he krit sided barack obama for going after mitt romney. >> and i remember when he had to say he was wrong. but one of the things i want to spell is we have two prominent african-american voters in there. >> here is the question that i have. i think they will all work hard to win over this vote. they all may succeed to a degree. if the vote becomes fairly equally fractured, then what becomes the swing vote? >> i'm certainly hoping that will happen because that gives

you an opening up the middle. listen i think in the end, i think all of these candidates have to compete hard and they have potential problems. biden had problems with the crime bill, right? booker will wall street, and senator harris was a prosecutor. so i think there is weaknesses there that can be exploited with all three of them. >> if you're not one of these candidates, and i kwesz -- how do you, you basically want to be everybody's second or third choice? what is the best way to try to get in african-american voters. >> i think it is to do what democrats said they would do which is not just talk about diversity but have diversity. even if you're not a candidate of color you will have to have

diverse people working your campaign. a chief of staff, a campaign manager, always have platform and something to say okay, i don't just want to talk about criminal justice, but education and health care. i think that is what you will have to do in some ways to really get the attention of african-american voters. >> very quickly how negative will this get in the african-american community. >> we are in uncharted waters. we have not had anything like this before. >>. >> yes, there will be an attack add. >> uncharted waters is great. >> they can be, but they can make you seasick. >> the court considers silencing roger stone. a lot of bookers that will want to hear that. we'll be right back. want to hear that we'll be right back. myself. but believe me... i'm not your average consumer.

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welcome back tonight. in 2020 vision, to paraphrase yogi beara, there is a lot of similarities between ohio and iowa. >> one candidates first trip to iowa as a personal candidate.

he will also be making his pitch in new hampshire and south carolina in the coming days. but don't yet call him a declared candidate. >> that is a very personal family decision. the question is is march too late? there are now eight democrats running fighting for staff, mon money, and attention. biden, beto, and bernie all have the names to make a later announcement. check your local station and we'll be back with more mtp daily after this. more mtp daily after this 300 miles an hour,

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welcome pack, a federal judge in washington today told president trump's long time confident, roger stone, that she doesn't want the run up to his

trial being like a book tour. she is considering placing him under a gag order. >> i have made it clearly not testify against the president. >> i'm in for the fight of my life but i will not quit, i will not fold. >> any chance you'll cooperate with robert mueller if he asks? >> that is a question i would have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion. sf >> i know what i did, what i didn't do, i know the facts of the case. >> both prosecutors have to make their cases about a gag order. joining me now is mimi roka. all right, if your robert mueller, first do you want this

dag order and what is your best case for it? >> sure, the government definitely does not like their case being tried in the public. i think as we have seen is the side that does the talking is the defendants, the people charged with crimes, the government doesn't salespeople. it becomes a very one sided not contract conversation. only one side is making them. so it is the case that the government does not like people like roger stone that go out and talk to the press and have very little filter and sort of are not restrained by the truth. that said, the government is not quick to seek gag orders and they don't like issuing them.

there are real first amendment concerns. they like to give warning and explain to defend why it is not in their interest. roger stone is making all of these statements not knowing all of the evidence against him. as i think we have also seen is that once people start to see the evidence against them they have to change their story. not only may he will tainting a jury pool, that is the biggest argument in play. you can't do that when you have out talking so publicly about this case without knowing all of the evidence against him. >> what does end up triggering him. i have interviewed him in this

process, and he is careful, he seems to be mindful of what the facts are and how he words things. does that help reassure a judge that he won't abuse this? >> he has the right to express his views and opinions, i don't know if he has the right to go out and state facts that are wrong. sitting here right now we don't know what he says are true or false. we know this is a man prone to telling falsehoods. he may be telling the facts as he believes them or wants to believe them but i don't think that is the facts. i think once he starts to corrupt the record in that way a judge will step in.

>> if the president is so comfortable doing what he does with the mueller report, part of me thinks the judge may not like what he is doing, but would it really accomplish all of that considering how frequently the president himself seems to traffic in tainting the jury pool. >> this is an issue that some of us have, in talking a lot in the past few years, the fact that you have donald trump and rud l giuliani all of the time that go out and put their spin on things. a juror said she heard statements that the president made, i think that is wrong. i think he should not be doing that, but it is complicated to

whether or not there is ax that a judge could take against them. what the president does and juliani does in some ways has more power and is more damaging and they should not need an official body to tell them not to do it but i understand they will quick doing it. >> ben whittis said that mueller sort of hacked documents, he said he made a mistake, that he probably made a mistake and he handed the documents basically to our russian infill traitors, do you think in hindsight he made a mistake? >> i think the mistake was in charging them. it is possible that look, i still have a lot of faith in huler and believe that he thought out all of these

strategying fully. nobody is perfect so it is possible that is true. bringing the lawyers into the picture one thing they're relying on is the u.s. lawyers here abiding by the protective order and trying to ensure that our system through the courts is not corrupted. the court, the lawyers, and the prosecutors have a possibility to try and guard against that. so it could be that he did not foresee this outcome, but once again mueller caught up to them and he was able to detect what he was doing before he gave over sensitive information. >> but american lawyers need to worry about american rule of law. thank you very much. happy friday. coming up, why i'm obsessing with two things. the same thing happening over and over and the same thing

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okay, campers, rise and shine and don't forget your booties, it is cold out there today. as you may have guessed tonight i'm obsessed with ground hog day. more specifically i'm obsessed who how ground hog day, the day, has been completely redefined by ground hog day the movie.

when someone says "groundhog day" they're rarely talking about the actual groundhog day when punxsutawney phil comes out to tell us if it is more winter or more spring. now they refer to it as living the same thing over and over and over again. believe it or not that meaning is part of the dictionary definition of groundhog day. why doesn't groundhog day, the day, the tradition, hold up on it's own? here is one possible explanation. >> this is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather. >> here is a challenge to you, the viewer, can you think of another example like this where a term or concept has been totally redefined in this way? tweet us at meet the press

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welcome back. a story developing at this hour from virginia about the state's governor ralph northam. the medical school confirmed that his 1984 yearbook page contains an image of two men in racist attire. one is a black face and the other in ku klux klan robes. we'll show you the image from the newspaper and i warn you the photo is offensive. nbc news has not confirmed the identity of the two people in the photo. it implies one is governor northam. a couple of statements out here, i believe we have a statement from the virginia republican

party. if we can put up that on the board. it essentially says if this is true, he should consider resigning. let me read. governor northam appeared in black face or appeared in the kkk robe, he should resign immediately. is this going to be something that democrats are likely, many virginians, is this something he can survive politically or not? >> i think it's going to be very hard for him to survive this politically. it was 1984. this is not something that was far far in the future or far far in the history. this is something that happened in a pretty modern era where it was very well known that you shouldn't appear in black face, that it was understood that the kkk was a domestic terrorist organization that was killing and pillaging communities. i think the governor has a lot to explain if that is him in a black face or kkk robe. i think on the democratic side, they're going to have to feel the pressure of what to say

about this, because we know the democrats have definitely spoken out when republicans have had the same sorts of issues. >> in fact, i believe the now former secretary of state of florida basically was secretary of state for a day essentially and had to resign when photos of him in black face showed up. >> yes. governor northam hasn't put out a statement yet. he's going to neat a good explanation and it's hard to come up with what one would be. >> his only way of surviving is if those are not him. >> yes. and i would mention two words. doug wilder. doug wilder was the first african-american governor in the south. >> are you implying he could save or not save safe ralph northam? >> he was elected five years after this picture. >> he was a major figure in the '80s in virginia. >> a year before he was elected lieutenant governor and that was

a ground-breaking election as the first african-american statewide office. >> so actually the history of virginia had already moved way, way far distance from the old resistance of the '60s. so in the historical context, if the pictures are true, it's inexcusable. >> the lieutenant governor is an african-american from northern virginia named justin fairfax. in fact, it wasn't very long ago that he refused -- he resides over the state senate. they did a tribute to robert e. lee and he had walked out so i would imagine the virginia democratic leaders are going to have a hard time standing by ralph northam considering they're walking out of protests on commemorations of robert e. lee. >> i think it's going to be very hard for the democrats in virginia not to come out very hard and say that this is unacceptable. i think that when we look at where we are in this country with hate crimes rising, with racial divisions widening, i think that the democratic party

here in virginia is not going to be able to stick by the governor if he is, in fact, one of those people that are in black face or in a kkk robe. >> i've got to think in a presidential race, here's the thing, if virginia democrats don't step up, we just had a big segment about the fight for african-american support. presidential candidates are going to step up. >> in another context, the current life we're in, think of what's happened in terms of the me too movement as well. we've seen a lot of politicians including i would mention al franken who some people in his family and his defenders and his friends said hey, wait a minute, let's wait here. let's not jump to any conclusions, let's not demand the kind of justice that a lot of other people thought had been denied for a long time. things move fast now. they move fast. and if hours go by without him

giving an explanation, it also adds to the likelihood that it's true and he's out. >> and it's hard to do the youth thing. this is medical school. it's hard to do the youth thing. he had already been at vmi. i'm sitting here wondering what does any explanation he could grasp, i was young and irresponsible. >> which the senate minority leader is trying to do in his behalf and i do not believe it will work. >> it just doesn't smell right on this one. never mind he already had his own controversy having to do with abortion. that is a polarizing issue left and right. this is much different here. this feels like this is going to be something that he may not be able to survive the weekend. is this something that could happen that fast? >> i think that could completely happen that fast. i think we live in an age where we now all have i think collectively decided black face and kkk robes are unacceptable and if you did that as a young

medical student that you should not be fit to be a governor of any state, so i think in some ways it's going to be a very quick justice if this is, in fact, him. >> if this is real, it makes you wonder how did both tom perry's campaign and ed gillespie's campaign never discover this? thank you all. we'll be right back. minimums and fees. they seem to be the very foundation of your typical bank. capital one is anything but typical. that's why we designed capital one cafes.

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one of those weeks. we'll be back monday. this sunday it's "meet the press" on your local station. senator sherrod brown, my guest rick scott, the new republican senator from florida. good evening, ari. >> good evening, chuck. we have a big friday show tonight. democrats launching the first hearing about demanding donald trump's taxes since they took subpoena power. a democrat leading that effort is here tonight. plus a famous name joins the 2020 race. senator cory booker is running and blasting what he calls trump's great shame. and a controversial photograph on the virginia governor's medical school yearbook page. this is a democratic governor. it shows a man wearing black face next to another man wearing a kkk robe. it's a breaking story and we have that later in the hour. we begin with the indicted former trump aide roger stone. he was back in court today facing a judge who is considering a gag order, a decision that could seriously up end this case. what would that