the "why?" the coldest fact, the young woman gone too soon. that's all for now. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm phillip mena at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's 6:00 in the east, 3 out west and here's what's happening. damning portrait, what we learned from the sentencing moment mow for paul manafort and why it's leaving more questions unanswered. >> it also doesn't tell us one way or the other what evidence bob mueller might have put together in the course of his investigation. >> we don't know what mueller knows, but we do know that he didn't put what he knows in this document. >> plus, what dems want. the 2020 hopefuls are talking. what they're saying this week end on the campaign trail. >> anybody who loves our country rejects any form of hate. >> i have the biggest

anti-corruption bill since watergate, and boy do we need it now. >> we need to come towards and move towards universal health care for all, right? new today, fallout from robert mueller's scathing assessment of donald trump's former campaign manager in a highly anticipated memo. manafort could effectively face life in prison when he's sentenced next month. meanwhile, a big week ahead on capitol hill. trump's former lawyer and so-called fixer michael cohen will testify twice behind closed doors before the house and senate intelligence committees. wednesday he'll have his marquee hearing. trump implicated cohen and he pleaded guilty to lying to congress later admitting that candidate trump was involved in

discussions during the campaign to build a trump tower in moscow. yesterday my colleague alex witt spoke with the former aide about what she's expecting when cohen talks? >> there is no question that that big red line for donald trump is his children, particularly ivanka. once michael cohen starts sharing details that may implicate him, you will see him truly become, well, unhinged. >> meanwhile, the house votes on tuesday to stop the president's national emergency declaration. that will trigger a vote in the senate but the president has vowed to veto the resolution. this as the acting defense secretary seems more in favor of the declaration after touring the border yesterday. he'll decide how to divert $3.6 billion to build a border wall. >> any place where someone can cross the boarder and disappear within seconds or minutes, that's where you need barriers. barriers work. >> democratic representative dan kildy vowing to fight the

declaration in congress and in the courts. >> this is a violation of the constitution. this is not the president using emergency authority, this is the president himself having a political emergency as the circle is tightening around him. >> for more now on the manafort filing, we're joined from the white house. mike, good morning. what more can you tell us about this and what can it mean for the president? >> reporter: good morning to you, phillip. it's unclear what it means for the president but it gives us an indication when bob mueller will wrap up his investigation. it's been going on for approaching two years. paul manafort never likely to walk free again. bold acts of criminality did mueller's team say in this sentencing memo. they say many aggravating factors were present for the judge to consider but no mitigating factors. they outlined an array of felonies that have been going on for over a decade including

witness tampering and this happened while he was campaign chair of president trump's campaign in 2016 and even while he was out on bail during this investigation by mueller and his team and under threat of court action. mueller's team characterized manafort as a grave threat of recidivism. in other words, if he were to go back out on the street, he's likely to commit more crimes. they didn't recommend a sentence per se, phillip, but they did note that the sentencing guidelines, the federal sentencing guidelines would put manafort in jail for some 18 years. phillip? >> 69 years old. that's quite a while. mike vacara, thank you. joining me now is melissa quinn and blake auchel. let's begin with the highly anticipated testimonies of michael cohen. these are the topics the oversight committee plans on asking bhim on wednesday.

melissa, what are you expecting from cohen's testimony here? >> obviously this is going to be something that is watched extremely closely by the white house. we have to remember that president trump will not be in washington, d.c., when this takes place. some of the things we expect cohen to be asked about are the hush money payments to stormy daniels and carrie mcdougall and the president's role about what he knew about those payments specifically but also about this trump tower project in moscow that michael cohen did acknowledge discussions were ongoing during the 2016 presidential election. certainly something that is going to be watched very, very closely for many people here in washington. >> as we heard moments ago, a . amorosa said he may cross the line talking about trump's children? which one is at the most risk of being implicated in criminal activities? >> i don't know about criminal activities but i would expect

cohen to be asked about the children. i think democrats are going to be loaded for bear on that question. they know it's a red line for president trump as amorosa suggested. i would be curious to know what their involvement was in the campaign and how detailed was it? anything that contradicts their public narrative of oh, we barely had anything to do with this is going to be especially interesting. >> nbc news has learned that cohen has been providing information to federal prosecutors in new york about people with the trump organization as well as the trump inaugural committee. what are the legal risks for the president on that front? >> in terms of his inaugural committee, it comes down to what did the president know and how much action did he take? it is a violation of federal election law for foreign nationals to make campaign contributions. that is one of the central issues in terms of what federal prosecutors may be looking at with the president's inaugural committee, but it's the same thing in terms of the

president's dealings there as what we have also seen with these allegedly illegal hush money payments that michael cohen was involved in. what exactly was the president's role. how much action did he take? what was his intent? those are all things that michael cohen can certainly shed light on. >> blake, do you think that michael cohen will be shedding any light on the infamous 2016 meeting at the trump tower when it comes to don jr. because he was in attendance there? >> yeah, i hope so. we've only heard snatches of what went on in this meeting and conflicting accounts. initially the president denied there was anything untoward that went on and as we've learned there was a suggestion of lifting of sanctions in exchange for what we don't know exactly. we don't know exactly how long those conversations continued after that meeting into the summer. we don't know what those phone calls really were that led up and around the meeting so i would expect cohen is going to be asked about that and i hope he can shed some light on the

details that were remaining to learn about. >> nothing to lose at this point, right? let's shift gears. talk 2020. progressive democratic candidates are hoping they can widen their coalition by focusing on proposals like medicare for all and economic equality. republicans seizing on those proposals to paint democrats and painting them as social radicals. do they risk alienating the voters who supported trump in 2016? >> i think there are two minds among democrats about this. i think there's a camp of democrats who say they're going to call us socialists anyway, we might as well do these maximal positions that are going to get us as much progressive policy on the table we want. then there's another camp, the joe biden, amy klobuchar camp that says this is too far left.

independent voters are going to rush into donald trump's loving arms. i think there's going to be a robust debate about donald trump and it will be settled at the poles. >> what is your take on progressive candidates and the socialist branding? is it problematic for the potential moderate voters here? >> it seems like that is what president trump is banking on. we have seen him as more and more democrats throw their hats in the ring, as they announce their supports for some of these proposals, medicare for all, he's seizing on where that sort of falls in this scale of progressive politics saying that we will reject satisfactionalism. it seems like the president himself is really hoping that he can help sway those moderate voters who supported him in 2016 to do so in 2020 and seize on

the policies that so many democratic candidates are coming out with. elizabeth warren and bernie sanders are headed for a collision. do you think they'll have to fight to differentiate themselves? >> yeah, there's certainly a lot of pundants who view them in the same category on the left. remember back in 2016 warren bowed out of the race in part in deference to bernie sanders who was championing a lot of the causes that she favors. you know, i think that they -- they might be kind of in different lanes because tone alley elizabeth warren is really talking about reforming capitalism with moderate reforms working for middle class people and bernie sanders is talking about blowing up the whole system. he's running as an outsider candidate and she's running an

insider campaign, someone who's been championing these from the inside floor. >> wanting to tax the very wealthy. what is your take on this? >> the proximity to new hampshire for both of these senators is going to be an interesting thing to watch. you have elizabeth warren from massachusetts, bernie sanders from vermont. there are distinctions where their policies are. senator sanders does not shy away from the fact that he is a democratic socialist. elizabeth warren paints herself as a populist and will not go that far. there are some similarities in terms of the policies that they support. it may be in terms of a different sort of scale there, but i think it's just like blake said where senator warren is certainly wantsing to shake up the system and senator sanders wants to blow it up. >> let's talk about this video of the acting defense secretary

at the border yesterday firing a non-lethal pepper ball gun. what do you make of the optics here? >> well, i think that's -- you know what they say, there's an audience of one in washington if you're a cabinet official. certainly the audience here is president trump. he hasn't picked a new defense secretary. perhaps shanahan wants to show that he's the guy by saying he's on point. >> given their immigration policies we all know about, what was your take on what we saw in the video? >> i think that's exactly right. we have to remember that the acting defense secretary is still trying to get nominated formally for the job, but he has an interesting sort of line to walk. not only does he have to ensure that the defense department's core mission is being implemented and played out. we've seen a lot of action from

the pentagon over seas but the president wants to bring that back inside the border and the acting secretary, shanahan, is still really interviewing for the job. it makes sense that he would come out in favor of the president's border wall. he's also going to be overseeing the efforts to redirect that $3.6 billion the president identified in his national emergency declaration. so he's walking a very, very interesting line here. >> blake, the acting defense secretary here, we saw that they were all for that photo op there. representative congresswoman veronica escobar who represents that 16th district in the el paso area. she was in town. i was there. we asked her about the presence. they said that the acting defense secretary declined to tour the border with them. instead all that comes of it is that video that we see here. what do you make of that refusal to meet with the representative there in that district on the ground to see what's happening? >> well, you know, there's a lot of opposition from lawmakers

along the boarder and wall. i can certainly understand that. perhaps he wanted to do something that was a little bit more structured, that he had control of and that's why you saw him decline that invitation. one thing i thought was very interesting is there's been talk that the military might not even be able to use all of that $3.6 billion, they might not need it. i'll be curious to watch with whether they follow through with the entire declaration there. >> melissa quinn and blake, thank you so much for joining us very early on this sunday morning. >> thank you. next, what the atlantic magazine calls the loud silence of mueller's manafort memo. and the major take aways from that report and the broader implications for the president. the only network to win in all four major awards is the one more people rely on.

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i've always found paul manafort to be a very decent man. he was with the campaign, as you know, for a very short period of time, relatively short time. i think the whole manafort trial is very sad when you look at what's going on there. i think it's a very sad day for our country. he happens to be a very good person and i think it's very sad what they've done to paul manafo manafort. >> new developments this morning after the special counsel in a redacted court filing described donald trump's former campaign

manager, paul manafort, as a hard jebd krened criminal who ry violated the law. the government has not located a comparable case with a unique array of crimes and aggravating factors. joining me now is msnbc legal contributor katie fang. good morning. >> good morning. >> what does that tell you about the man the president hired to be his campaign chairman. it sounds like they could not find anyone as criminal as manafort. >> talk about a difference in opinion. we've got donald trump who still hasn't said anything badly about paul manafort and we have robert mueller and his team who do know all about paul manafort's dirty deeds talking about the fact, like you just said, phillip, they couldn't even find a case that is comparable to compare to the acts and the conduct of paul manafort. so first off the bat, makes me wonder is donald trump still considering a presidential pardon for paul manafort?

we do know that the potential prison exposure for paul manafort runs as high as 24 years and for somebody of paul manafort's age, that's pretty much tantamount to a live sentence. we wonder whether or not donald trump is still perhaps looking at paul manafort for a possible presidential pardon, but we also know that the new york state attorney general's office just a few days ago announced that it has a contingency plan. its insurance policy is that they are preparing state, tax and other fraud-related charges for paul manafort on the off chance that trump does give him a pardon. >> in a new article in the atlantic, there were omissions. manafort was not charged with conspiring with russia, but if mueller does have evidence of conspiracy, why wasn't it included in that filing? >> i know a lot of people were let down about that, phillip. listen, even i was interested to see what the mueller team would be willing to disclose.

we know there were some redacted portions to that sentencing memorandum. they dealt with things like the identities of lobbying firms and other individuals. what i want to emphasize about this sentencing member did i is the following. it's focused on the crimes before the court. we know the only ones before the court are in two different places, in the eastern district of virginia where he was convicted of eight felony counts after a jury trial and in the district of columbia with two counts of districonspiracy. that's it. there is no conspiracy with russians to influence ordeal with the presidential campaign in 2016 so it is not unusual that mueller did not include allegations about russian conspiracy. phillip, we do know that there was that infamous havana room meeting with con stand teen kilimnik so that doesn't mean there is no evidence of what we

call collusion with russia on the part of paul manafort. >> what we weren't sure about was what was in those redacted lines there. do you think there could be more charges against manafort? >> against manafort, absolutely. there could be a superseding indictment that comes down the road that charges new crimes not on top of what's already been done in the eastern district and the district of columbia. maybe even a conspiracy count. there are other people that mueller is clearly still looking at. they may not be defendants. they may never be charged. the reason why their names may be redacted, there's more work to possibly be done by the mueller team. i'm not so concerned about the redactions. i'm more concerned about whether the mueller team is wrapping up. it's reading tea leaves. who knows if he's going to be done now or in a few months. >> you mentioned pardon in a few months ago. there's a new piece out. are new york democrats handing paul manafort a case for pardon.

it cites double jeopardy. so if manafort does happen to be pardoned by president trump, is there going to be an issue of double jeopardy here? >> so new york -- the state of new york has a very strong, very pro defense double jeopardy law, but double jeopardy applies to every citizen of the united states. it's included in the constitution. it's been reenas far ased in case law, but in this particular case with paul manafort, there's other jurisdictions that could charge him with state-related crimes. fundamentally as long as paul manafort is not indicted in the state of new york for the same exact crimes for which he's either been tried or for which he's already pled guilty, he will not be dealing with a double jeopardy defense. >> you still have the question of the ten charges, i believe, that were -- and it resulted in a hung jury. those aren't completely off the table, are they? >> they are certainly not. in fact, we do know that informally the jury was this

close to convicting him for those other 11 counts that were out in the eastern district of virginia. those counts still remain out in the open. those counts could still be charged but paul manafort, again, at his age is already looking at significant exposure. the judge in d.c., judge jackson who had the roger stone case, she could sentence him ten years consecutive to what he's going to get in virginia. paul manafort has had the incentive to tell the truth, to cooperate and assist but he chose to lie but he's going to pay the price. >> prosecutors turned down that chance multiple times. michael cohen is set to testify before three committees coming up this week and while the president appears to be unnerved about those hearings, cohen believes he has information that could damage the president. what could we expect here? what are you hoping cohen reveals? >> pretty exciting week in d.c.

he's testifying this week. cohen is going to emphasize on webs in that public hearing, phillip, those campaign finance violations that everybody kind of forgets about a little bit, right? that was the big deal back then in 2018. >> oh, yeah. >> feels like years ago. the stormy daniels, karen mcdougall thing, that's a serious achilles heel for donald trump. it still implicates the trump organization. it still implicates other people. we know there are people on the sidelines cooperating with the federal prosecutors that could do in somebody like donald trump even if robert mueller doesn't find something. >> katie fang, thank you so much. hang on for us. we will see you again in a few minutes. >> sure. what kamala harris told joy reid about the topic of the race and it's a preview that will be airing later this morning. airing later this morning. with all that usaa offers

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kamala harris will be the busiest with three stops in iowa. harris sat down with msnbc's joy reid to discuss a number of hot button topics including the state of racial division in this country. >> how does a black woman win the presidency in a country where the trend is towards more racial polarization? >> how does one deal with it and how specifically do i deal with it? head on. head on. and as far as i'm concerned, in my heart, in my soul, in my mind, and my brain know that anybody who loves our country rejects any form of hate. >> you can catch joy reid's interview with kamala harris today at 10:00 a.m. eastern. now to the upheaval in venezuela. it happened saturday as a

u.s.-backed drive to deliver foreign aid met strong resistance from president nicolas maduro. tammy leitner has the latest. >> reporter: reports of several protestors dead, killed by maduro's security forces. tensions have reached a boiling point. things so volatile some of those soldiers switching sides. now pledging allegiance to interim president who's in columbia spearing efforts to get aid across, much of it from the united states. this is the third trip the u.s. military has made with life saving military supplies. this c-17 is carrying enough medicine to help 40,000 people for three months. there's enough rice on this flight alone to feed 2,000 people for a month. none of it has made it into venezuela where people like yanedi guzman are starving. >> sometimes we don't have food,

she says. sometimes it's difficult for me to eat. during a rally in cokur ras cac he says there's no problem. tammy leitner, nbc news. vice president mike pence will travel to colombia on monday to call for nicolas maduro to step down and to recognize the opposition leader as president. the people versus r. kelly. a new sordid allegations. msnbc is live every saturday and sunday at 6:00 eastern. we hope you can join us. we're back in a moment. a mentro. ♪ one plus one equals too little too late ♪ ♪ a sock-a-bam-boom ♪ who's in the room? ♪ love is dangerous ♪ but driving safe means you pay less ♪ ♪ switch and save ♪ yes, ma'am

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in power, politics and paychecks, a lot of happy investors these days with the stock market rebounding from last quarter's wallop. the dow opens tomorrow after nine straight weeks of advances. that's reportedly the longest such streak in 24 years. with california joining 15 other states and suing to block the president's emergency declaration, the golden state has now sued the white house 46 times. the hill newspaper says that's the most times a state has sued the federal government in our history. musical artist r. kelly appeared at a bond hearing on saturday where a judge in chicago set a $1 million bond.

kelly is facing serious felony sexual abuse charges after allegedly having sexual abuse encounters with women, three under age. ron not has the latest from chicago. >> reporter: allegations of praying on under aged girls have trailed r. kelly for two decades. he faces ten felony charges involving four women, three of whom were minors at the time he had illegal sexual contact with them. the judge set the bond for the 52-year-old who stood during the brief hearing at $1 million. these new charges aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from a video prosecutors say was provided through an attorney. >> in the video the victim repeatedly says she is 14 years old and he is seen penetrating the victim orally and vaginally. >> if there is video r kelly with a victim under age, that

will blow up any saying a victim was 17 years old. >> in january she says she began a relationship with him at 16. >> if i didn't agree to have sex with him i would be locked in a room. >> the entertainer has long denied all allegations. his attorney offering a stern defense. >> he did not force anyone to have sex. he doesn't have -- he's a -- he's a rock star. he doesn't have to have nonconsensual sex. >> he was a quilted on child pornography charges in 2008 but a perhaps more difficult battle lies ahead. >> that was nbc's ron mott reporting. katie fang is back with me. katie, we obviously do not have a conviction yet.

what does this all mean for r. kelly then? >> what we do know, phillip, r. kelly couldn't come up with the down payment of the $100,000 for the $1 million bond so he spent another night in jail in chicago last night. what we do know in this particular case, phillip, what makes it different in this acquittal is that we have dna in this case and we also have four willing victims who are offering to come forward to testify against him in a trial in front of a jury of his peers, and that's a big difference. we also have a videotape wherein you heard during ron's package that he actually is acknowledging that the victim is 14 years of age. so there's a lot of things that are stacked up against r. kelly. one thing that particularly stands out that we heard during the bond hearing yesterday, phillip, that was disturbing is during that 2008 trial one of the victims in this current case who was 16 years old at the time went up to him and asked him for his autograph after a court hearing. he allegedly gave the autograph to her, said come to my house,

then he began a sexual relationship with her at the age of 16. she did provide a sample of dna, excuse me, to law enforcement. they confirmed it was r. kelly's dna. that's one of two dna samples that have been confirmed to have belonged to r. kelly. >> he had group yis at a sexual assault hearing. >> i know. >> that's unbelievable. his lawyers, they were calling those accusers liars so can defense attorneys, for lack of a better phrase here, revictimize the victims? >> sure. sadly that does often happen in a sexual assault or sexual abuse case. how will you go after their credibility? you suggest exactly what r. kelly's defense lawyer has been saying, they're out for fame and fortune. they're out for the gravy train which is the exact words he used at a press conference on friday night. that's how you go after the victims, but ultimately the victims will have to come forward. their credibility will be determined. if i'm r. kelly at this point, i

might be discussing a plea negotiation with the prosecuto s prosecutors. i don't think this of maligning and attacking the victims in this way is going to play out very well, especially like when i said there's independent corroborating evidence of dna and a video. >> he was previously acquitted in 2008 on the other charges. how is that going to play a role in this case? >> well, in his psyche, if you're r. kelly and you rolled the dice, you rolled the dice and you are emboldened. the key difference is back then in 2008 that victim, she didn't want to cooperate. she refused to testify. she refused to identify herself in another video that was deemed to be child pornography so ultimately r. kelly was quickly acquitted by the jury back then. that was a long time ago. that was before the me too era and that was before women felt like they were empowered to come

forward and speak out against allegations of sexual abuse. >> before that a very popular lifetime documentary we saw there. katie fang, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. a new poll on the 2020 race and the preference for one candidate when it comes to age. we'll explain next. there's no shortage of late night laughs when it comes to president trump. here's a little sampling before we go to break. >> president trump met today with the chancellor of austria. said trump, did you bring a kangaroo? representative alexandria ocasio cortez compared it to the berlin wall. that wall got built. >> they asked bernie about aoc and he said, that's where i get my e-mail so he's --

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they're followed by kamala harris, elizabeth warren and amy klobuchar at 8%. let's bring in antwon seawright and ted harvey, chairman of the committee to defend the president. antwon -- >> good morning. >> good morning. thank you both for joining us. >> good morning. >> antwon, how do you read the numbers we just showed there? do you have any concerns about possible baggage from 2016 after sanders going into this primary battle? >> well, i don't read those numbers at all because keep in mind it's so early that it's laughable that when we talk about any poll. keep in mind a poll is simply a snapshot of the time and most of these polls we see in these early states are all about name i.d. in this case i think this poll is more about geographical location and also we should definitely consider the fact that it's no surprise that the states like new hampshire who have these two people at the top of their list. i will also go on to tell you that it doesn't matter because

the road to heaven and the white house runs through south carolina and i don't think new hampshire's primary voting demographic is very reflective of the race ahead from the democratic primary. >> ted, the poll also looked at match-ups between president trump and the democratic candidates. it found president trump was trailing in all of them with his toughest opponents being biden and sanders. how bad of an omen is that for the trump campaign? >> well, i agree with antwon that this is a snapshot of where the whole race is today but it's not surprising that trump is losing in the northeast. he didn't win any of those states in the northeast so i don't find that surprising. i don't find it surprising that bernie is leading in the race when he pretty much won the nomination last time had it not been for the clinton campaign essentially stealing the lais time from him. >> don't do this on sunday morning, please, dan. >> what was that, antwon? >> dan, please don't do this on a sunday morning.

you know as well as i know, millions of people showed up in caucuses and primaries around this country so that we could nominate the first female to ever represent a major party nomination and so the election was not rigged. the only problem -- the only thing about the election was rigged was the general election was you guys winning with the help of russia. >> yeah, exactly. >> ted agrees. all right. antwon, let's look again at the potential democratic nominees. the poll broke down preferences by voter age. it found support for sanders concentrated with younger voters and decreased as the age increased. it was reversed with joe biden. >> antwon, go ahead. >> bernie was able to activate the millennial vote and the young vote in the last 2016 presidential cycle so that's actually not surprising. and, you know, older voters tend

to be more loyal. joe biden is known as america's uncle so there are a lot of older people who have seen the evolution of joe biden and seen what he's done for the party. the poll is not that regard. >> it is ironic, though, to have a 77-year-old man that is so popular among younger people that way. antjuan, another one for you. the candidates are making early stops on the trail this weekend with kamala harris out in iowa. i want to play this for you. she's clarifying her position on medicare for all. >> in my vision of medicare for all, there would be a phasing in of it, and there would still be the option to have private insurance for the purposes of supplemental coverage. literally, there is a return on investment in terms of the money that we put into the health care system. paying for prevention instead of paying for emergency room visits. >> and part of the hang-up in some polling on medicare for all has been this question about what happens to private insurance.

is that the right way to put that question to rest? ted? >> what i do know is this -- oh, i'm sorry. i think you keep talking to me. i'm sorry. >> ted, you can take that one. >> i'm sorry, you originally said you were going to send it to antjuan, so i apologize for that. i think this issue is going to be a big issue in the democrat primary because they know that they can't afford to do it. they know that most americans aren't at the place where they support socialized medicine, yet the majority of their candidates are pushing for it, and it's going to continue to push their party further and further to the left in this primary. that's an issue that they're going to have to deal with, and that's why bernie sanders is leading in these polls, is because the youth in america are pushing the party further to the left, but the more senior citizens in the party aren't buying that socialist mentality that the younger people are pushing for right now, so i think this is going to be a huge issue in the democratic party

and will then translate into a huge issue in the 2020 general election. >> antjuan, do you think kamala harris handled that the right way? >> i think she did. i think she has to continue to flesh out what these policies, these 50,000-foot policies look like, not just for health care, but criminal justice reform, infrastructure, all of these things we hear the candidates talking about this early in the ball game. and i would also tell you that candidates are going to evolve on their policy positions, but the beauty about the democratic primary or any primary, is that it allows the marketplace of ideas to be fleshed out and debated. i think what you hear in the primary will be different than what you hear in the general election. >> all right, ted, this one's for you. a new report out on amy klobuchar eating her salad with a comb back in 2008 after an aide had forgotten to grab utensils for her and then telling that aide to clean up the comb, to clean the comb for her. she says she loves her staff but admits she's tough. what do you make of comparisons

between amy klobuchar's reported behavior and that of president trump's? >> well, i find it bizarre that that is one of the issues that we are talking about in the media. >> it's early. >> something this crazy. i don't think it's going to be a major issue in determining who's going to win the democrat nomination, and it shouldn't. >> that's right. >> so i find it bizarre that we're having those kinds of conversations. >> -- your neighbors and you report back to your neighbors, and that's how this is -- >> all right. antjuan, i wonder, do you have any take on this comb saladgate here? >> well, in the words that a great philosopher drake, what a time to be alive. the fact that we're talking about a comb and salad. last week we were talking about senator gillibrand's visit to south carolina, eating chicken with her hands. geez, i just hope that we're going to focus on politics at some point -- >> amen. >> -- and get away from all this distraction activity. >> all right, antjuan. klobuchar was also making campaign stops yesterday. we started to play it, but i want to play what she said about

her plan for addressing climate concerns. here we go, a real issue. >> sure. >> get back into that international climate change agreement. we're the only country not in it now. number two, we need to bring back the clean power rules, which are sensible ways to do this that the obama administration worked on at the end. and three, bring back the gas mileage standards that we were going to put in. >> she's called the green new deal aspirational, though she supports it as a framework. how's this approach to an increasingly important issue for democrats going to be received? antjuan. >> well, i spent time with the senator yesterday while in south carolina. i appreciate her pragmatic approach to addressing these issues. i think she's right, there's been a lot of conversation about the green deal and some of the language in it, but again, i think like any piece of legislation, it's simply a framework for all of us to think about and shoot from. i appreciate the fact that we made so much progress under the obama administration on climate

change and working to present natural resources. i just hope we can get back to that conversation because the republicans have absolutely failed the american people on this issue, and i appreciate senator who wants to bring that back to the forefront. and it's smart for her, because she's going to need to separate herself in a very crowded democratic primary field, and this is one way she can do that. >> all right, ted. "the daily beast" has an exclusive report out titled "trump won't rule out using stolen data in 2020 campaign." it says democratic candidates have committed not to use hacked materials. the trump campaign declined to make such a pledge. what's holding the trump campaign back from making that pledge? >> well, i'm not exactly sure what they're talking about when they're talking about stolen information. is it the fact that wikileaks has information that they acquired from a former staffer of the democrat party that they have on there? i believe that is fair game. why would you not use information that is in the public domain to talk about what

the clinton campaign was doing to try to circumvent bernie sanders during the primary and circumvent the american voters during the general election? that is in the public domain, and i believe that that is fair game for everybody to use, including the democrat opponents. >> all right. ted harvey, thank you so much for joining us today. antjuan seawright, thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> thank you, have a great day. the acting u.s. defense secretary opens fire while visiting the border. what's the point of that? visiting the border. what's the point of that

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that wraps up this hour of "msnbc live." i'm fiphililip mena. now time for "weekends with alex witt," and there she is! >> good morning. appreciate that hour of news, phillip. and good morning to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. it is 7:00 a.m. in the east, 4:00 a.m. in the west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." hardened criminal. an assessment of a one-time campaign manager in a new court filing, but what does it tell us about the president and russia? and that big red line for donald trump is his children, particularly ivanka. >> the big, red line. one-time trump fixer michael cohen to testify this week. how much might he spill on don junior and ivanka? on the 2020 trail. a new poll with an early look at the front-runners as many of the candidates fan out across key states again today. you're going to hear what they're saying, ahead. border w