>> tech: yes ma'am. >> tech vo: saving her time... [honk, honk] >> kids: bye! >> tech vo: ...so she can save the science project. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ welcome to "kasie dc." i'm kasie hunt. we're live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight michael cohen sings. now congress listens to whether he and the white house discussed pardons. and i'm joined live by shawn patrick mahoney, who was behind closed doors with the president's former lawyer. plus, the president leaves a long shot summit with kim jong-un early as talks fall apart. later, bernie sanders'

second act. he fights the ghosts of 2016 as he runs under a new reality, front-runner? we're going to start with breaking news as we come on the air. according to the associated press, at least two people are confirmed dead in alabama after a tornado ravaged parts of that state. these pictures are from the town of smith's station, alabama. pasts of the same system are responsible for massive trukss in a town outside of columbus, georgia. one home was reportedly knocked off its foundation and spun around in the air for some time. there's search-and-rescue effort under way but no word on how many injured in georgia or if there are any fatalities there. we're monitoring this story and will bring you more in an update in a couple of minutes. our hearts are obviously with the people in those affected areas. but we do want to bring you now a broad view of what is happening here in washington.

about 16600 days away from the 2020 election. a new nbc/"the wall street journal" polls the president's arooval ratings climbing. if you go by economy numbers, it's humming along with gdp at 6.2%. >> everyone in this great country right now because of our great, new economy is doing well except, of course, for the never-tr never-trumpers but they are on mouth-to-mo mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. it's mouth to mouth. mouth to mouth. >> meanwhile, michael cohen goes back to capitol hill this week. former russian-born trump business associate felix sater will testify in public the week

after. the judiciary chairman said they could for documents from more than 60 people in the president's orbit as part of an obstruction of justice inquiry. it sounds like in the weeks to come house democrats will also also weisselberg, ivanka trump and don ald trump jr. for interviews. oh, and the mueller report could be submitted basically any day. but back to michael cohen and his return to congress. this time saying he would tell the truth about his own misdeeds and those of his former boss. >> is there any other wrongdoing or illegal act that you are aware of regarding donald trump that we haven't yet discussed today? >> yes, and again those are part of the investigation that's currently being looked at by the southern district of new york. >> on saturday in the longest speech of his administration, the president unburdened himself about a number of people, particularly those surrounding the russia probe, with one notable exception.

>> so they don't have anything with russia. there's no collusion. the collusion delusion. i saw little shifty-shift, humor ow podesta, great genius attorney general says i'm gonna recruise myself. robert mueller, robert mueller, robert mueller -- when i fired lying james comey, i said you know, first lady, melania, melania, it's bad. he's a bad, bad is, he's a bad, bad guy. the people in the fbi are incredible people but not this one. this was worse than the election of andrew jackson. i'm not just saying it. but you know what, we're winning and they're not. we're winning and they're not. >> okay. no mention of michael cohen, his longtime lawyer, until he tweeted this about five hours later. with that i would like to welcome my panel here on set,

nbc news intelligence and national security reporter ken dell lanian. white house bureau chief for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst philip rucker, former executive director of the south carolina republican party, joil sawyer and co-founder and managing editor of the beat d.c. tich ti tiffany cross. phil rucker, i barely know where to start with this speech. it did seem after the trip from vietnam where he was 12 hours off the news cycle here in washington while he was reportedly up all night watching michael cohen that he did have a lot of feelings and thoughts, things he needed to say. you were on that trip. i mean, what's your sort of overarching view of how this week has gone for the president and where things stand now? >> k.c., it's not been a good week for the president. that summit in vietnam, he came in there with high hopes he would be able to persuade kim jong-un to make a deal. instead left completely empty

handed. he couldn't get anything out of the north korean dictator. he was in the air 20 hours going to vietnam, 20 hours going back. meanwhile, everything was hitting the fan here in washington with the testimony. >> very polite way of putting it. >> of his personal attorney michael cohen. that cpac speech, it was not consistented or planned for hscd for planned to talk like that two hours. >> did he have anything on teleprompter? >> apparently he had remarks prepared but it was not the remarks he delivered. his aides, i talked to some yesterday and they were surprised by that performance and sort of laughed it off. as put it, he unburdened himself. others would say it's truly a bizarre moment in the history of the president united states. but he had a lot he wanted to say and he got it out there. >> would you consider it sort of the first speech of 2020 from him? i suppose we've seen rallies from him. >> he did that texas rally down in el paso where he was head to head with beto o'rourke a couple weeks ago.

that was the first actual campaign speech on the calendar cycle, 2020 cycle. cpac is his home. he feels very much in a comfortable place there. remember, he was going to the cpac conference before he became a presidential candidate. he got big crowds there years ago. he feels like that's his base, those are his people. so when he's in front of that audience, he kind of lets it rip. to him this was a kickoff moment. he's seeing all of these other democrats out there announcing their campaign's massive rally, camilla harris, and he wants a piece of that action. >> for sure. ken dilanian, first of all on the cpac speech, does he create new problems for himself in context of the russian investigation every time he goes out and does something like that in. >> one thing i noticed and others noticed two times he mentioned his wife in the context of knowing things about russia. he said he discussed the firing of james comey, and we wonder does that make her a witness? she would have spousal privilege. >> i'm glad you brought that up

of the let me show our audience exactly that moment ken talks about. >> when i fired comey, i said, you know, first lady, i said melania, i'm doing something today, i'm doing it because it really has to be done. he's bad. he's a bad, bad guy. and i said to the first lady, i said but you know the good news, the good news is that this is going to be so bipartisan, everyone's going to love it. so i said to melania, melania, the good news, this will be a popular thing. and a fire a bad cop, i fire a dirty cop and all of a sudden the democrats say how dare he fire him! how dare he do this? >> by the way, first lady melania's trump three-state the best tour starts tomorrow. ken, you were saying, spousal

privileges may not be entered into the public record. >> in federal law, a spouse cannot be compelled to testify against another spouse. besides, wee believe be rot mueller's close to wrapping up his investigation. the report can go to the justice department as soon as this week. it's not clear this is relevant but it sure perked up a lot of ears. >> for sure. you also have reporting into investigations whether michael cohen talked to the president about a pardon. >> not necessarily the president. this started to percolate, i heard about it last week, phil's paper got to it first but we are reporting, three people familiar with this say both the house and senate intelligence committees asked michael cohen about whether there were pardon discussions. he told them something, we don't know what. this is back when his home and office were raided and he was still on the same side as the president. so there was a nudge that it could add up to obstruction of justice but there's a lot more to learn on this story. >> joel, i would like your take.

the republicans did not jump to the president's defense here. they attacked michael cohen repeatedly. but do you find the actions of the president and michael cohen to be defensible at all? >> no. i mean, look, if what michael's saying is true, there's the old saying about birds of a feather, right? i don't think the republicans members of the committee played it exactly right. i think because -- look, if you're a person who doesn't have your mind made up watching this hearing, this show, just calling someone a liar over and over and over again doesn't convince me that he's a liar. michael cohen has a long record of public statements. it's very easy to go back and pick apart and say were you telling the truth when you said this? were you telling the truth when you said this in i don't think republicans really necessarily made the case michael cohen is not a guy who should be ace lend listened to. i think at the same time there's a lot of he said/he said stuff with regard to the president's

private comments on race, that sort of stuff. that's not going to change anybody's mind. that something maybe the president said to michael cohen, the president said he didn't. but those sorts of things don't move the ball forward. >> i'm kairos becaucurious beca they didn't jump to the president's defense. but i think they did. when you attack the messager, you attack the message. >> sure. >> but they could have gone farther to attack the actions as well as the witness. >> possibly. but we didn't learn anything new from the cohen hearing and i found it interesting they kept calling michael cohen a liar. let's talk about what he's saying he lied about. he lied to congress underoath about trump tower moscow. is that the best defense from republicans? their contention is he lied, that donald trump wasn't still in negotiation with vladimir putin over this huge financial deal for him in moscow. and if that's their contingent,

it's kind of weird that's the theme. >> it's a rock in a hard place. >> it's not a rock in a hard place. >> my point is you were right about him doing it six months when he was actually doing it? there was no negotiating at trump tower moscow at some point. so if you're defending the president, you're defending the timing. >> the timing is kind of significant here, ken dilanian, because it means he was potentially having a financial interest in russia while he was running for president and telling the american people he had no interest in it. >> not only that, it was a project that would have acquired vladimir putin's approval while he was praising bizarrely vladimir putin. >> exactly. >> i think we did learn a lot in the cohen hearing because what we learned is he's cooperating extensively with southern district of new york. he's got documents. they have multiple investigations going. and that could end up being more dangerous to trump than the mueller investigation. he brought a bank statement that appeared to raise questions

about financial fraud, campaign finance fraud. and it seems to shift the momentum how we're looking at these investigations, those of us who cover this are now focusing more on the suouthern district than what they're doing? >> i think we definitely learn things like that but i don't think there were any clutching moments that people thought oh, my god, i thought donald trump was such a truthful leader of the country and now he's lying. i think they brought the receipts, proverbial and literal but i don't think many people thought this guy didn't know about the payments stormy mcdaniel or inflate his tax returns for the purposes of building this new property. that's why i say wep did the learn a lot from this hearing, in my opinion. >> potentially a different environment where we went 0 to watergate where the entire country tuned in wanting to learn instead of saying they already have their opinion. we want to turn back to the breaking news out of alabama where, according to the

associated press, two people are dead as tornadoes ravaged part of the smaj. we will go to nbc's tammy laettner. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right, emergency officials saying at least two people dead, numerous injuries and extensive damage from the tornado that touched down just less than a half a mile from where i'm standing. it happened earlier this afternoon. residents did have some warning. they were told take cover. and then the skies got dark. the tornado touched down. there was extensive damage to homes, to businesses. now this is a main interstate where i'm standing, and there's been a line of cars backed up for the last few hours here and that's because this small town in eastern alabama of about 4,900 people, it took such a hard hit that traffic has been slowed, and it's not been able to get through. ground crews, emergency workers are still going door to door in this small town, trying to assess the damage, trying to figure out if people still need

help. as you can see, it's dark out here. it's going to be a very long, difficult night for the people that have lost their homes out here and for those that are still trying to find loved one rz. kasie? >> long, long night indeed. tammy, thank you so much. we will be back with you when we have more updates on this story. a lot more to come tonight on "kasie dc." signs of movement on the gun debate in congress. i'm joined live by congresswoman debbie dingell. first, the president had the authority to grant jared kushner's security clearance, why not just say so say s ? flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. you can barely feel. half of small businesses fail within 5 years.ne. and more people than ever struggle with debt. intuit is here to change this story...

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the controversy surrounding presidential son-in-law jared kushner's security clearance reached new heights this week after after "the new york times" reported last year president trump ordered then chief of staff john kelly to give top-secret clearance to kushner despite concerns from top officials. the president reportedly overruled recommendations from intelligence officials and white house counsel don mcghan. that's according to four people briefed on the matter. the president has previously denied he anything to do with the decision, and now the house oversight committee is demanding the white house turn over documents and witness interviews regarding its process for issuing security clearances by tomorrow. earlier today, how judiciary chair jerry nadler called the move, quote, an abuse of power,

even though it is well within the presidentese constitutional authority. ken, you've been working on this. i want to play for everybody why this is such a sort of stunning -- it would be stunning regardless but it's also important to note the president essentially has said that he did not do what "the new york times" is reporting he did. here is "the new york times" interview, audio only interview with "the new york times's" maggie hagerman. take a look. >> did you tell general kelly or anyone else in the white house to overrule security officials? >> i don't think i have the authority to do that but i wouldn't do it. jared's a good -- i was never involved with the security. i know just from reading there were issues back and forth, the amount of security for numerous people but i don't want to get

involved in that stuff. >> so ken, why lie about something like this? first of all, the president does have the authority to do this. so what's the problem? >> you can only theorize but why lie because it's embarrassing to have to do that because your son-in-law cannot qualify for a security clearance. the career specialist who looked at jared kushner's application concluded he could not be trusted or should not be trusted with the nation's secrets and they were overruled. nbc news reported that about a month ago. the piece we didn't have, which "the post" and "the times" have confirmed, the man in the white house who overruled his underlings was acting on the orders of the president, passed down through the chief of staff staff and white house counsel. >> where they felt so freaked out about this decision they felt they had to right it down? >> absolutely. this is both an fbi background check for one level of clearance and cia background check for a different level of clearance. they both flagged significant

concerns about foreign influence in jared kushner's background. he failed to list his foreign contacts when he filled out his form, which most people say from a regular person would exclude you. he had special treatment and he got more special treatment and raised a host of questions. >> it's worth pointing out here, kasie, this is not normal. in a traditional, normal white house someone who is a senior adviser to the president, if they're not able to get a security clearance for whatever reason, they're no longer the security adviser to the president. they don't hang in these job two years waiting for clearance and having the president intervene. it is within his authority but it's not something most presidents do. and we should also point out just the pattern of deception on this issue, the president has lied about it repeatedly, the white house staff has lied about it repeatedly, ivanka trump lied about it. although i don't know how much she personally knew about the circumstances. but people have not been truthful and honest and transparent with the american people about the process, even though it's allowed. >> but they knew it was a big

problem. >> and elijah cummings has written to the white house counsel and giving the white house until tomorrow to respond to his request about some of the things they have raised about concerns about concerns of jared jared kushner's clearance. it will be interest what the what the white house responds but i don't think they will get somebody to explain it. >> and that was part of the story. >> one thing to add if jared kushner were feeling at all humbled or embarrassed, he didn't show it last night. i was at the gridiron dinner, big, fancy white tie and tails dinner and he and ivanka were there mingling with everybody, acting perfectly themselves as if everything is normal. >> what's so interesting about that, their lawyer, abbe lowell, mished issued a statement to me when he told everyone there was nothing unusual about this clearance, that was the information he got. he threw them under the bus.

>> i was curious about that, how much long can abbe lowell stay jierd kushner's lawyer? it seemed to imply kushner was lying to him. >> that's one implication. he also talked to other people in the white house as part of his own investigation and it's his position they all represented to him there was nothing abnormal here. it's a huge question mark. i hope the outoversight committee can get to the bottom of it. >> i feel like there are a lot of euphemisms question marks in this case. maybe another one. ken dill lynnian, thank you so much as always. when we come back, we will dig into brand-new polling as president trump gives what feels like his first campaign speech of 2020 and uses, shall we say, colorful language. >> i think my language is very nice. the new green deal or whatever the hell they call it, this speech should have been delivered one year from now, no

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the president's two-hour speech at cpac yesterday seemed to serve as a preview of what we can expect from him on the 2020 campaign trail but in many ways it sounded like an event straight out of 2016. >> you know i'm building the wall, we're finishing the wall. others cannot come into our country and steal our wealth and steal our jobs and build their country and not defend our country. i want to say we lost 800 -- this is for many years, almost $800 billion in trade. from the day we came down the escalator, i really don't believe we've had an empty seat at any arena, at any stadium. >> the president also opened his playbook about how he plans to paint the democratic party ahead of his re-election effort.

>> democrat lawmakers are now embracing socialism. they want to replace individual rights with total government domination. under the green new deal, which somebody described as a high school term paper written by a poor student. so i do like the green new deal. i respect it greatly. it should be part of the dialogue of the next election. thank you. >> our new nbc news/"the wall street journal" poll shows 18% of americans have a positive view of socialism while 50% have a negative view. so clearly the white house has decided that this is a line of attack.

what's your sense in the white house about how they view the the current field. how concerned they are about joe biden jumping in? >> they're concerned about some individual candidates who seem to have pop and star power and ability to sort of speak to the masses and use social media, someone like kamala harris for example. but what they're trying to do strategically is lump all of these democratic candidates together and they think trump will have an advantage by the democrats moving more to the left to try to secure the progressive elements of the base. so for the most extreme thing th that elizabeth warner want to pro ho propose, trump would want to move it over so they include some of the middle of the road folks. >> what we heard, lock her up chants? and the wall, does the president, can he use the same

things he ran on in 2016 as a template for success in 2020? does he need something new? >> i think will he have to have something new to convince people in pennsylvania, michigan and witness witness because they took a chance on him because he was something different, something new. yeah, he tweets weird things and he says things that aren't true but he's something new. i just want a change, right? so i think given four years of him, he's going to need something other than 2016 to get those people to give him another four years. i think there's a huge opportunity for democratic candidates. i think the proposition of trump is largely an economic one, and i think if the economy -- particularly if the economy comes off with a sugar high in the next couple of years too, that he's going to have a real fight on his hands. >> i just want to weigh in on that. i don't know. i think maybe they gave him something new but he was essentially a one-trick pony.

the scary thing about his cpac speech was all of the people cheering in the audience. it was numerous falsehoods, two hour long, sweatiest speech he gave but written with lies. so many people in the audience were not prepared for it. it's not teleprompter information we got. >> exactly. >> to your point, joel, i don't think you can penetrate this layer of willful ignorance from the trump base. >> i'm talking about swing voters. >> we talked off camera and i think these swing voters, if you're still on the fence at this point, i'm not sure -- >> some voters are not us, they're not people who live in politics. >> fair enough. >> but p you can actually find them. >> but if there's somebody on the fence about trump, whether they will for vote for trump or a democratic candidate, i will argue i'm not sure what it will take to convince this person. can you look at the president's

record. you can look at his statements that he's made and the position he's put america in domestically and globally and you would have to ask these people, what is your -- what's the measuring factor? >> they're not measuring anything right now. they're going to work and trying to raise their kids and they're going to decide a week before they go to the polls who they will vote for. >> who in the white house is most concerned to speak to those people? >> it keeps changing. there's concern joe biden can speak to swing voters, people who came out for trump in the midwest, wisconsin, pennsylvania voters. but there's a lot of concern about other candidates as well with trump's advisers. they were impressed by kamala harris, a little worried about beto o'rourke, whether he could make magic happen. they're concerned about other democrats who might rise up and create energy. they most fear somebody who will be a foil to trump and be sort of his equal in terms of speaking to mass audiences and creating energy. >> essentially not being

anti- -- there were so many people who wanted to vote against hillary that voted for president trump as well. >> exactly. >> for sure. joel sawyer, tiffany cross, thank you both for the spirited conversations. still to come, things fall apart. some of the most intractable problems in the world and now despite optimism from the white house, deals are proving illusive abroad on everything from denuclearizing north korea to peace in the middle east. le . that rocking chair would look great in our new house. ahh, new house, eh? well, you should definitely see how geico could help you save on homeowners insurance. nice tip. i'll give you two bucks for the chair. two?! that's a victorian antique! all right, how much for the recliner, then? wait wait... how did that get out here? that is definitely not for sale! is this a yard sale? if it's in the yard then it's... for sale. oh, here we go. geico. it's easy to switch and save on homeowners and renters insurance.

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president trump has been branding himself as an expert deal maker for decades, and since entering the political arena, he's predicted success on some of the most illusive foreign policy challenges of our time. >> if you're a deal person, right, the ultimate deal is that deal. israel, palestinian, i will try the best i can. and i'm a very good deal maker. believe me, try and solve that puzzle. >> we're looking seriously at things that may be ultimately peace in the whole of the middle east. i think we have a pretty good shot, maybe the best shot ever, and that's what we're looking to do. >> and, of course, he has long sounded bullish on north korea as well. >> north korea, we will take care of it folks. north korea is a problem. the problem will be taken care. we'll handle north korea. it will be handled. >> presidents have, of course, struggled with these problems for decades, and reality set in

this week for this administration. jared kushner sought to raise support from an israeli palestinian peace plan during a tour through the middle east but emerged with little to show for it. further complicating matters, the expected indictment of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and, of course, president trump and kim jong-un abruptly cut short their second high-stakes summit and vet vietnam without a deal or a clear path forward. i will start with you, because you were in hanoi for that summit, we heard conflicting reasons why this all fell apart from the americans and north koreans. what is your sense of exactly what happened, why it fell apart and what we should take away from this as the most significant peace? >> the specific sticking point seems to be economic sanctions. president trump and mike pompeo, the secretary of state, said north korea demanded that the u.s. lift all economic sanctions

in north korea in exchange for closing one of the nuclear facilities, which would have left a whole arsenal that north korea would still maintain, a problem for u.s. and it's why trump said he walked away from the table. the bigger problem in these negotiations is they were coming in literally going to meet and north korea would never abandon their nuclear weapons and u.s. wouldn't go all the way and remove the sanctions so the work traditionally done in advance of the summits did not take place here. trump flew to vietnam hoping he might be able to create some synergy, some chemistry with kim jong-un and get a deal and it wasn't going to be. >> we also here with us have evelyn fargas, former deputy assistant to the secretary of state and national political reporter of defense. what you have written in foreign policy.com that the push for a trump/kim nuclear summit still

hasn't run its course totally. why do you think that? >> i think as bill just explained, there's a big gap that needs to be bridged but it's not completely umbrageable. it's just going to take the experts to sit down and bridge it and it's possible if -- and what i wrote there is if we keep economic sanctions on north korea and keep sanctions on them because we're motivated to change their economic situation. also if we maintain military deterrence. deterrence is what basically is elg it kim jong-un if you make any move towards our south korean allies or towards u.s. forces in south korea, either -- well, conventionally, you know, hopefully not nuclear move, that we will take action and our forces are ready. unfortunately since i wrote that, the president made a decision to freeze those exercises. i had hoped he wouldn't. >> josh, i want to talk to you about the middle east here. we heard the president talking about how he feels like he can solve what has been one of, frankly, humanitarian's most retractible problems for quite

some time now. what is your sense of how jared kushner's tour went and where things stand now? >> kushner's tour seemed to go okay. he met with top leaders in the region, first meeting he had with mohammad bin salman since the khashoggi killing. he was basically laying out some of what was going to be in the plan and what he's expecting from middle eastern countries to try to make it possible, such as aid to help the palestinians rebuild. but the fact of the matter is for more than a year now, kushner and his team have been waiting for the ideal moment to unveil. they're waiting for a time when the politics in the region were stable enough he had the best prospects for success. now the combination of what's going on in opposition to the plan and also benjamin netanyahu facing indictment seems to make clear there's not going to be a great time for this. the middle east is a mess. has been a mess for a while. and several steps the administration has taken have made it only that much harder.

even tonight, kasie, we have breaking news on this, the state department is announcing it's merging the u.s. embassy it moved to jerusalem with the u.s. consulate, which for decades acted as the defactor u.s. bea to the palestinians. this is one more move to take away a separate autonomous way to engage with the u.s. government and create a further exception the administration isn't being fair, as biased in this and make it potentially harder to get a deal. >> can we dig into netanyahu for a second. what role is he playing and why are his political troubles at home important for our position? >> that's a great question. the administration has been relying on netanyahu to be the one when they finally present this plan to bring israelis to the table, particularly right wing israelis who are opposed and on record, opposed to allowing palestine statehood. own over the last years as the administration has done all of these basically gimmes to the

israelis moving the embassy and other things seen as really one sided, the idea was in the end they're going to come up with a deal that has hard stuff for the israelis that will make it much fairer and when there's opposition from the right wing, netanyahu will be able to pull a nixon goes to china kind of thing and basically bring his part along. of course, if he's not the prime minister or if he's so underwater with his own political crises he's unable to be effective, that's one more problem jared kushner and his team have to reckon with. >> your tage on if these goals the administration set are at all possible? >> i think it's really odd they've been having these negotiations go on, as josh said, for over a year. we don't know anything about it. the american people doesn't know what's going on pt as far as i know congress isn't in the know. another example of the administration not letting congress in and briefing congress and working with congress. and relying on prime minister netanyahu is a mistake.

he is not -- his future is uncertain and i think he's polarizing in the region, certainly the palestinians view him with a lot of suspicion. the other part, of course, of this plan is relying on the saudi crown prince, who is also not viewed as credible by many other players, including our members of congress. and presumably any kind of peace deal would allow some money, some kind of assistance to certainly the palestinians, maybe israelis. we provide a lot anyway. so congress would have to back up whatever deal jared kushner comes up with. >> lots of questions there. thank you all for being here tonight. coming up next -- as congress grapples with background checks for guns as fault lines emerge from democrats, congresswoman debbie dingell joins me live on set up next on "kasie dc." [farmers bell] (driver) relax, it's just a bug. that's not a bug, that's not a bug! (burke) hit and drone. seen it, covered it. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two.

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would live or die. one night i kept my father from killing my mother. he shouldn't have had a gun. this is what i remember as a child. my mother went out and bought a gun and then all of us were scared to death about her gun and my father's gun. we had two guns to worry about. no child, no woman, no man should ever have to go through that. >> and democratic congresswoman debbie dingell of michigan joins me now. quite a speech. i think probably a lot of viewers that didn't realize that was part of your personal back story. >> well, i don't -- i don't talk about it a lot. for a variety of reasons. you know, when i was younger you didn't talk about it. quite frankly, when i first started at general motors, someone found out about it and tried to blackmail me with it and i think one of the reasons i

talk -- i didn't know i was going to be speaking until five minutes before i had to get up. people thought that the motion to recommit was on veteran i issues and when i listened to -- i really spoke from the heart that day. >> you weren't planning on making that speech. >> no. they thought the motion to recommit is a veterans issue and guns are complicated. but i think people don't realize it happens in all kinds of households. how complicated the issues are and my mother's still alive so you don't want to hurt your mother but i do talk about it because people need to know. it's comply kaicated. >> this is the first major gun legislation to pass the congress in a couple of decades. and in some ways that reflects a change in the democratic caucus. some members were from areas of people very focused on protecting the second amendment.

what do you think changed that allowed this to pass? >> well, let's be honest. the man that i loved and was married to was an nra board member at one point and something we disagreed on although the last time i spoke about this when we had to sit in on the floor and he later told me that he had been proud of me for talking about it so openly. but i think, you know, these shootings occurring every day, in schools and public areas have people thinking, okay, there's some people -- i don't want to take people's guns away. my husband was a very responsible gun owner. but there are people that shouldn't have guns at certain times and how do we -- i think people are more willing to have that conversation now. >> you mentioned a motion to recommit which for people not terribly familiar with the procedure on the floor it's a chance for the minority to make changes before the bill passes and they focused on the

immigration agency i.c.e. and said that the background check system to report any undocumented immigrant this tries to buy a gun to i.c.e. and caused a revolt on the liberal side of your caucus after this passed. there's been reports that ocasio-cortez said behind closed doors every moderate that voted with republicans on that to allow this change would be on a primaried list that she would try to, you know, oust them from office. is that actually how it went down? what are the tensions like behind the scenes? >> so a motion to recommit is a ervet effort by the other party to try to make it difficult for members of the other party. and when democrats did it to republicans, they -- zero. they never passed because republicans realized they're a parliamentary maneuver and designed to cause members of the opposite party problems. and look. i had a hard time on the

background check versus i.c.e., as well, with largest population of muslims in the country living in my district. i know what can happen. i think that people are trying to explain to members that these are a parliamentary maneuver designed and if everybody sticks together then they can explain that but when people start voting and you have times when it works and when it doesn't then it can be a problem. i think what aoc was trying to say was she tried to explain how difficult the vote was for her and said you're creating a list of people that could -- people are going to know that you are feeling vulnerable. some people have interpreted it the other way. our caucus has to work this through. we had a very honest discussion on thursday and we'll walk through but we have to be smarter. we did much better on thursday because for many reasons. but we had to be smarter about understanding what the other party's trying to do to us and

sticking together. >> all right. fair enough. your lost your husband john dingell, first time i've seen you since then. how are you? >> we had a love affair. we were a teem. anybody that thinks you get up and keep going, so it's hard. >> thank you. >> i hear him in my ear, woman, you got work to do. >> we have been thinking about you here at the show. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. still to come, a gut check moment for republicans. when is a national emergency really an emergency? plus, the president lashes out at congressional democrats trying to probe everything from his campaign contacts with russia. "kasir dc" after this. it neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪tum tum tum tum smoothies. also available tums sugar-free.

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with the botox® savings program, most people with commercial insurance pay nothing out of pocket. talk to your doctor and visit botoxchronicmigraine.com to enroll. welcome back. i'm casey hunt. we'll get to the top political stories of the day and how congress is investigating the president in just a moment. but we start with devastating severe weather in the deep south. at least 14 people are dead in alabama according to the lee county sheriff. the dead are said to include children, two adults and more people are still unaccounted for. this video comes to us from the town of smith's station. and nearly 50 miles away a powerful tornado battled parts of georgia. a search and rescue operation is currently under way there. no word yet on the number of injured in georgia or whether there have been any deaths. we'll monitor the story and a live report now from the tornado

zone. we have tammy le 2itner on the scene. we have confirmed 14 dead? >> reporter: yeah. that's right, kasie. 14 dead in lee county from two tornadoes that touch dodd un. one was an 8-year-old girl. tragic. many more injured and getting the first look at the damage. this is a gas station we're standing in front of. just one of the many businesses and residences damaged. i'm told that one of the employees was actually inside of this gas station when it happened. he actually came outside and took cover by a brick wall here and we are with one of the owners. al, this is al patel. how are you guys doing? you're starting to piece things back together here. >> when they call me and told me i did not believe what happened.

i rushed here. got here. found the store destroyed. my employee came rushing. he hugged me, crying. if he didn't come out within ten seconds of this incident he would have been gone. >> you said he had some injuries, though. >> yeah. he had some injuries on his arm and not major but he does have some injuries. like i think he hit a wall or door or something. and so that's how he have injured his little arm. >> it is unbelievable, though. not more extensive just looking at the building. >> it looks bad. you cannot go inside because of the fire department said structural damage is really bad inside. but i took some pictures and it looks pretty bad. super destroyed. from the back of the building you would siee a lot more damag

than this. it took the canopy on top and the tornado went inside and it just knocked out the side wall. my employee managed to get outside in a timely manner or we would lose him. i'm glad he's okay. i'm super glad he's okay. >> thank you so much for talking to us and good luck building there. >> thank you. >> appreciate it very much. and as you can imagine it's a very long night. we know that rescue crews are on the ground. we have seen them out here. they're still going door to door. you know? i'm just looking around me and we drove by and there was a cell phone tower in the first 100 yards. it was crumpled, down completely destroyed. we drove by a bar about 100 yards from where i'm standing. i don't know if you can see over there but the roof is completely ripped off of it. there are no walls. there's nothing left of the bar. and this is just where i'm standing what i'm seeing.

there is not a whole lot left of this town of 4,900 people in eastern alabama. kasie? >> tammy, thank you very muchl for that report. we'll be staying in touch with you throughout the hour. our hearts and prayers, of course, are with the people there that you are talking to. joining us now over the phone is the coroner for lee county, alabama, bill harris. bill, thank you for taking some time out of your night to talk with us. i realize you are probably in the process of finding the families of the vikctims. what can you tell us about the devastation in the home county? >> i have not been able to see any of the damage yet. but i have set up my command center in the school parking lot down here to receive the descendants. we have 14 confirmed dead that the time. i expect that number to go higher. probably be here through the night. they're just having trouble getting into these roads and

driveways because of the devastation. so we're -- it is just going to be a long night and families can't find anybody and showing up. call everybody they can and see if you can find who you're looking and if you can't, let us know who that is so we can find somebody we don't know who it is we can match up the identity. >> sir, we have seen reports of children among the dead as well as adults. can you give us information? >> i don't know how many but, yes, there are some children involved. >> and has your community ever experienced anything like this before in the time that you have been the coroner? >> not in my lifetime. nothing of this magnitude. i'm part of the state mortuary operations response team which is a volunteer agency that is stationed dimptd apets around the state and one of the assets is here in lee county. this asset is deployed and i

have volunteers on the way here now to assist me as well as surrounding county coroners that have jumped in to assist us with the retrieving of the bodies and find the family members. >> what should family who is ie looking for loved ones, who should they be calling? >> coroner's office. there's a 24-hour number listed in the book. 334-737-6370. sheriff's office might take some calls. the hospital called me. they have folks showing up there. they want a list of the fatalities we have now but we haven't even begin to identify those yet. positively identify them. it is a long process. i have actually seen ambulances still coming, emergency where they found some people in the late hours that are actually still alive and being taken to hospitals for treatment.

>> lee county coroner bill harris. we are thinking of your in lee county, alabama. thank you for your time tonight, sir. >> thank you. >> our thoughts are with you on what's a very, very long night. but now here we want to move to the flurry of investigative activity in washington. chairman jerry nadler said today it is, quote, very clear president trump has obstructed justice. and now his committee is requesting documents of more than 60 people connected to the president and his administration. as he looks into obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power. elijah cummings said if michael cohen mentioned your name on wednesday's testimony you might be hearing from his commit tee. among the names, ivanka trump, donald trump jr., eric trump, alan wes elberg, corely lewandowski and david pecker.

at the same time, the house ways and means committee is preparing a request for years of the president's tax returns and interceding to give jared kushner a top secret security clearance, house investigators demand the white house to turn over documents related to the clearances of top officials by tomorrow. well, to break this down, i want to bring in my panel for this hour, jake sherman, reporter for the associated press, wanda evans and brendan buck and former spokesman for house speaker john boehner, michael steel. welcome to the show. it's great to have you guys here. brendan, welcome to the dark side. i'm going to start with you, actually, because one of the things we saw on the oversight committee with michael cohen was a lack of defense of the

president's actions. and rather a series of attacks on michael cohen's credibility. which fair enough. but is what the president has done here defensible? house republicans' actions in the hearing seem to suggest they don't think it is. >> if they had something to defend they would have done this. i mean, i know this conference very well and they're not shy about defending the president. so i think jim jordan did it to the extent he could. and probably more pugnacious than most and the embodiment of this conference. they are all about fight. they are very much in the president's corner and will defend him to great lengths but this was a strategy decision clearly on their part. >> let's just remember, michael cohen is the worst possible witness for a congressional hearing. he is someone as congressional republicans mentioned time and time again, actually been convicted of among other things lying to congress. >> yep. >> every hearing from here on out gets harder for house republicans because they won't be able to attack the witness

for exactly that reason. >> yeah. what's your sense of what the next steps here are going to be among these house commit tees and how do they walk that fine line? we have seen democrats be careful as not be seen as overstretching. >> the gulf is of representation and the rank and file particularly talking about the rank and file really wanting to see it push towards impeachment and something house democrats are careful of talking about and heard those remarks that chairman nadler made of documents requesting from the folks. he's talked about we don't know if the evidence bears that out yet and seeing how they mix that up with the overlapping investigations will be interesting. >> what's the next move? >> the president tweeted he thought the hearing contributed to his decision to walk away from the north korea talks so that's a new wrinkle l.

>> interesting. >> what it highlights is how ridiculous of a claim it was for the president to say governing might be easier in divided government. people said and wrote with a straight face in the weeks leading up to the election. listen. nadler is going to the heart of the trump administration. to the president's family. to his accountant. his father's accountant. this is only as mike said going to get much, much worse for the president. and forget impeachment. that is a process that might or might not happen. oversight is bad for the president. endless testimony. live tv. with the president in the country it is just going to be -- this is brutal. i don't think republicans have wrapped their minds around just how bad -- at least at the white house. i think capitol hill there is a recognition of that. >> do you agree? >> yeah. obviously there's a lot. there's a downside to that, obviously. so look this past week. democrats passed two -- two of the biggest gun control measures

passed in a long time and nobody was talking about it. entirely overshadowed by the entire spectacle and i will question oversight is important but i question the degree to which the investigations are going to learn anything that bob mueller doesn't already know. he's had all access to the people for all of this time. he could do everything that these folks can do in the committees an he is far better equipped to find the answers with the tools, resources or experience he has. the committee is not a substitute for law enforcement. >> to the extent that governing and politics is a television show now and i don't say that in a glib manner. >> to an extent. >> this is fascinating because bob mueller has this behind the scenes and cummings and nadler and the commit tee chairs doing it on television in realtime. >> other thing is bob mueller won't release the president's tax returns and it was interesting that in a way ocasio-cortez actually possibly made the strongest argument for

getting hold of those saying take the financial disclosures of michael cohen and only way to prove committing insurance fraud is the tax returns. >> impeachment is political exercise and what i think house democrats are doing is oversight is popular. impeachment is not. they'll call it oversight as long as possible while laying out a factual basis to lead to articles passing the house. >> they are buying insurance on the mueller report. if it doesn't provide the smoking gun that they need they need to play a predicate for the next step. the train is on the tracks now. this is happening whether they call it impeachment or not. >> do the republicans accept that the president is in big trouble or not? >> i think they know he's in trouble but their fortunes are tied to his -- how much trouble he is in ultimately and i don't

think you'll see them break from him any time soon. >> fair enough. we're just getting started here tonight. we' we'll talk about a new reality for bernie sanders. front-runner? >> heidi hieitkamp. our producers watched the sunday shows so you don't have to. >> president trump facing stiff, new challenges after a failed summit in vietnam. >> why was the president unable to negotiate a break through? >> the president did give up a great deal. >> the president's view is he gave nothing away. >> they were not willing to walk through the door that he opened for them. >> they didn't walk through it. >> he can hold it open again. >> the president seemed to ab solve kim jong-un in the torture and death of otto warmbier. >> do you take kim jong-un at his word? >> the president takes him at his word. >> but what about you? >> my opinion doesn't matter. >> former lawyer and fixer

michael cohen testified before congress about alleged illegal tiftd as president. >> this is a guy with zero credit bltd. >> mr. cohen doesn't have a great record of voracity. >> it's an impeachable offense. >> nothing that the president did wrong. >> nothing? >> show me where the president did anything to be impeached. >> do you think he obstructed justice? >> yes, i do. it is clear. >> they're trying to find a case for a problem that doesn't exist. >> there's no one that can factually say there's not plenty of evidence of collaboration or communications between trump organization and russians. >> do you believe they did it to try to help donald trump win? >> who knows why they did it? there's not one bit of evidence to show coordination, collusion, conspiracy whatsoever. s vacatio. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic

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michael cohen spent three days on capitol hill last week but he is not done yet on. wednesday he'll testify yet again with the house intelligence committee. democratic congressman sean patrick maloney is a member of that committee. he joins me now. tha thanks for being here. >> good to be with you. >> let's start with why cohen needs to come back for another round here. what are some of the topics you feel you need still to need address? >> i don't want to get into specifics of what's being

testified to and inquired about in closed session but i can tell you that there are significant areas of inquiry that we need to pursue that mr. cohen has been extremely productive and cooperative, very credible in my view and we're happy he is doing so and we'll get to the bottom of the central questions. he is a big piece of this puzzle. not the whole puzzle but a big piece of it. >> he, of course, did lie to the committee previously. is there residual anger about that fact or not? >> he has credibility problems and we are right to demand corroboration and credible because he's shown up with corroborating documents in the case of the stormy daniels payments. that's the kind of thing i'm looking for, i'm looking for key facts that can be corroborated but in terms of somebody who knows what was going on in the trump organization he's hard to

beat. >> there were names named in the oversight committee and we know that chairman cummings wants to talk to some of those witnesses perhaps, alan weisselberg, for example. who would you like to hear about? you know, who do you think would be most valuable for the public to hear from going forward? >> well, look. chairman cummings did an amazing job in that hearing. the focus of that committee is going to be on the subjects that involve stormy daniels, some of the issues in open session. our focus is really more on russia and the national security threats to the united states. our focus is on the influence of foreign actors like the russians but others and so what i'm really interested in is what is the connective material? what do we know about who was coordinating with whom in the early summer of 2016? that's the heart of this

inquiry. i think you will see us do that with felix sater on the 14th. michael cohen has important information on that but when you think about it not the central issue of whether there was a conspiracy to break the law between the trump campaign and the russians. >> i'm glad you brought up felix sater. the chairman thinks it's important for the public to hear from him in public. what is your sense of the first couple of questionings that you would like to put to him? >> look at. you have a project of trump tower moscow, might be the most lu lucrative in the trump organization. don't they think that's a weird thing to do, running for president and then you have the russians engaging in this presumably also untroubled by the fact. think about this. supposed to be legitimate russian business men engaged in

a transaction and also unconcern ds that their counter party might be president of the united states. you think that screws up the transaction. point is, why was this financial entanglement occurring in early 2016 and why did the trump people feel so worried about it that they lied about? this is why michael cohen is going to jail is that he said it ended in january and we know now that those discussions with the russians about trump tower went on at least through the middle part of that year. an ens and so what was so important to lie about this? and anybody involved in changing that testimony who knew it was false is in real trouble. >> all right. congressman sean patrick maloney, thank you, sir. really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. all right. just ahead, the 2020 presidenti presidential candidates in selma, alabama. where in 1965 peaceful demonstrators were beaten by alabama state troopers. among those there today, bernie sanders who had some work to do

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senator bernie sanders is about to speak at his second 2020 presidential campaign rally in chicago after his big announcement yesterday in brooklyn. according to his campaign about 13,000 supporters braved the cold weather to hear him talk about his family's middle class background.

>> coming from a lower middle class family, i will never forget about how money or really lack of money was always a point of stress in our family. my experience as a child living in a family that struggled economically powerfully influenced my life and my values. i know where i came from! >> earlier today sanders along with other high-profile democrats december ended on alabama for the 54th annual commemoration of bloody sunday. here you can see them marching. check out this video. from hours before. when presidential hopeful senator booker left the stage in selma and there you see hillary clinton when's getting an awards embraces him with a hug. now watch what happens when sanders leaves the stage.

clinton stood up to greet him. quick hand shake. and on to the next thing. all right. let's bring back our panel to talk a little bit more about this. so you guys probably know i covered bernie sanders in 2016 and mildly fascinated with the change of heart but, jake, i mean, he never used to talk about himself. right? frankly, if you talk to him or those close to him about how he feels about this he thinks a presidential race is strictly a contest of ideas and not personalities at all and asking him a question of a personality based question he would go off on you and make him ir tatdedri and interesting the message out of the gate is his story. >> he could talk ad nauseam of the senate. i don't think voters care about this. >> i would beg to differ on that. supporters liked him last time

because of the policy issues and i would agree he had trouble connecting in the primary for that reason. >> right. you can't broaden appeal if you talk about the votes taken and policy -- everybody seems to have a different opinion about me. >> who wants to take it? >> i was in brooklyn this weekend. >> perfect. >> i think what's interesting is not just talking about himself more, something that the supporters and aides have been telling him to. he spends 20 minutes talking about policies like $15 minimum wage and then there's a pivot moment talking about himself and not about himself as a tool necessarily to connect and share openly. it is not something he's careful to do. he's showing that he's not like trump and a fellow new yorker who's a billionaire. who gets multimillion dollar and

talking about the 25 cent allowance. there's a big democratic field full of people with large personalities and connect with voters personally and i think the aides pushed him strongly to do something he's uncomfortable doing and in chicago he's expected to talk about the activism he doesn't often talk about. >> right. >> a thing to see in a candidate that fell short is growth as a candidate, adding something to the toolkit and i think it's less about just talking about his personality and his backstory for the sake of that and more about connecting that with the policy lugss he always supported for a narrative that makes sense to voters. >> the point of the contrast with trump is a good one. he does, of course, though have remaining issues with african-american voters. i spoke to congressman meeks about this a couple of weeks ago. take a look at what he had to say about it.

do you think bernie sanders understands the fundamental concerns of african-american voters? >> last time he clearly did not and did not get the vote he thought he would get. we have another set of candidates running now and so maybe that's what we need to look at and see and look at individuals' records and the reason why african-americans did not support him because for his whole history in congress he didn't do anything with the african-americans. you know? >> juana, you mentioned chicago and the site of his protests of segregation of housing while he was in college and kricritics s what have you done for me lately? >> i talked to the former ohio representative, state representative when's a co-chair of his campaign of this and she believes that the long history of activism is relevant. she and the writer and activist sean king introducing bernie sanders and king said don't tell me that what bernie sanders

didn't do in 1960s doesn't matter but this is a lich that's been built lighting for people. they talk about the image of senator sanders arrested as a young activist chain linking arms and arms with african-american women protesting so they think that this shows that he's not a johnny come lately to the issues and had the interest of african-americans, at the front of his mind for a long time. whether or not that works with this electorate this time around isn't clear and things he didn't talk about in his 2016 bid whether that resonates with young activists who were critical of him is really interesting to see. >> he's often e quatdquated and class is why there's problems and offended african-americans that believe class isn't the only reason why there are issues. but brendan, i'm interested in your take. we hear from the president in the cpac speech socialism and trying to lump the democratic candidates under this label. bernie sanders embraces it.

do you think that's a winning strategy for the president? >> yeah, well, we'll see. one of the things you talk about him becoming a better candidate this time adrianza, remember bernie sanders largely won the debate. the agenda of people like michael and i used to laugh at crazy bernie sanders, crazy socialist agenda, at this point the democratic party moved a long way, you can use the term however you want. things we laughed at and now that's where the party is and he has things going for him and think of him i think as the clear front-runner given that and the ability to raise money. >> $6 million in a day. all right. is it a state of emergency at the border? depends on which republicans you ask. as we go to break, what was for some the biggest news of the weekend. >> we want to bring a title back to d.c. i want to be on broad street on a boat, thing, bus, whatever it is. you know? have a trophy over hi head and

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i would build a great wall, nobody builds walls better than me. believe me. mexico can pay for the wall. just so you understand. >> the barrier wall or steel slats, whatever you want to call it, it's all the same. >> you could call ate steel fence. >> the wall, the barrier, whatever you want to call it, it's okay with me. they can name it whatever they can name it peaches. >> we're going to be building over 200 miles of wall. i'm going to call it a wall opposed to barriers or slats. >> or peaches. no matter what the president calls his signature border project he remains intent on building it. the house passed a resolution to block his national emergency dick la ration which 13 republicans joining the democrats. now heading to the senate. three republican senators said

they would oppose the president and today in a sur vprise, rand paul became the fourth. >> there are so many republicans in the senate who have said that this national emergency is probably illegal, possibly unconstitutional. why are you on the different page from them? >> i'm wondering why they're on a different page. the president has the authority to do it. i wish some of those if they think this is the case maybe they should spend a little time with adam and go to the border and understand it. what we see happening -- >> and here's what mitch mcconnell said when i asked whether he thought the president's actions were lawful. >> do you personally believe that the president's emergency declaration is legal? >> that's part of what we were discussing today. >> what do you think? >> well, we're in the process of weighing that. the lawyer was there to make his

arguments. there were counter arguments. it is a crisis at the border and seems to me the colleagues on the other side are in denial about that. and you can't blame the president for trying to use whatever tool he thinks he has to address it. >> so that was a definitive answer. michael, from mitch mcconnell, not so much. >> no, look. that is tough issue for a lot of republicans. there is no doubt in my mind that additional resources would be helpful at the border. there is a changing and dangerous situation down there. the president clearly exceeded the intended purpose of this act in making this declaration and so you're putting republicans in a position where they're forced to choose between add heens her acting on greater border security. >> we have two former spokesmen for two former speakers of the house. listening to kevin mccarthy there, it struck me.

brendan, your former boss trying to strike a balance with the president arguing you don't know what i'm doing in private to try to help what's going on here but kevin mccarthy has taken this a step further in that he is -- he was trying to convince his members that there was nothing wrong with the president declaring a national emergency. when you and i both know if barack obama tried to do this they would have been screaming in the hallways. >> we have had this conversation before s. there hypocrisy? otherwise. when president obama did a bunch of things outside of bounds democrats were happy to do it. in fact, criticizing the president here they're talking about how excited they are to take steps on day one of the next democratic president. ultimately this is going to be determined in the courts. when president obama spent money he didn't have an appropriation for, when john boehner was speaker, he took him to court and sued and won. >> do you think that sets a

precedent for if the president is sued this time around? >> yeah. i would think so. and i think ultimately this issue is not going away, unfortunately. this is a long tail whether it's from the court case or spending fights to come. if the president does continue to go forward with it, expect democrats to try to defund it in the next spending bills and this fight is going to be with us for quite a while. >> very cheerful. jake, this obviously the president said he'll veto this. the reality is it's largely irrelevant and not decided in congress and putting republicans in the senate in a tough spot. >> it does. you could tell my mcconnell to read the tea leaves -- >> one of my favorite parlor games. >> that is to me mcconnell saying on this one we have to unfortunately let the chips fall where they may and people vote how they need to vote and i won't strong arm anybody. that's how i read that. i think senate republicans, the sense i got and the body

language, maybe you got a different one, it was the white house can't really do anything on this issue to say, on this one follow us because they followed the senate republicans followed the white house on nearly every other issue and this is a precedent setting issue where congress feels like i think a lot of republicans feel like, okay, we need to put our foot down and put a stake in the ground and say you can't just because you don't get your way on capitol hill like under obama we have to take action here so i think that's the vibe that i got this week. >> largely a free vote at this point. 13 republicans that voted for it in the house. far short of what you need to override a veto. there's no override level and that frees up members to vote for it or against it, the consequences are lower. >> for people not in this every day like we are and they look at the difference of the senate and the house on the issue, how would you explain the difference between house and senate republicans on this?

>> house republicans are up every two years, more concerned of a primary challenge than every general loss. they're in districts of president trump is popular. senate republicans up every six years. a handful in states where there's a real potential of losing to a democrat. and they are able to communicate with a statewide media and build a statewide profile in a way that a house republican can't. if they have a principled position against this like rand paul, they can tell the constituents about that in a compelling way. >> we'll see if it extends to other difficult questions for the republicans in coming weeks. thank you so much. just ahead, the green new deem with 2020 on the horizon, it's a focal point for members on both sides of the aisle. former senator heitkamp tells us

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welcome back. joining me now, former democratic senator from north dakota, heidi heitkamp.

senator, it is great to see you and have you on the program. >> thanks, kasie. >> so, i want to start by asking, primarily about the future of your party. let's start with the green new deal. this is something that the president has harped on and i know north dakota a place that relies very much on energy production. what is your sense of how talking about the green new deal is going to play into this primary process? do you think that some democrats are making a mistake by embracing it as enthusiastically as they have? >> i think we have to say what does this mean? democrats embracing a movement towards stopping war dcarbon emissions in the future and addressing climate change? that's a winning strategy. it's a lossing traenlg to say all one way. we'll move too quickly from fossils, disrupt the economy and they're going to lose in the

argument that you will be able to do this in the time period that's been laid out. so, if we -- if you want to look at it the president ignoring climate, that's bad on his side. the democrats as a huge problem needs to be address but they want realistic solutions, solutions that don't disrupt the economy. >> it is interesting. i hear the lessons learned a little bit in how you talk about this. i'm interested what you took away from your loss in 20 -- in this -- in 2018 in this past election. you were somewhat of an unlikely democrat in the first place. some people were surprised to see a democrat winning in north dakota. but obviously something changed from the time when you were able

to pull that off and this more recent election. what lessons did you take away from your loss and what has changed? >> it is interesting because if you looked, looked at two of the most important initiatives that passed in the last six years for the fossil fuel industry was the exportation of crude oil, which i led in the senate and got across the finish line in a year and the passage of a tax credit for carbon sequestration and utilization to we could advance new technologies to attack climate but also look how the fossil industry could be part of the solution. neither of those really made a whole lot of difference because i was branded as a democrat. i was branded as somebody who didn't care about those jobs. you know, it goes back to secretary clinton saying we're going put a lot of coal miners

out of work. that is frightening to anyone. and i think we have to start understanding that if we're going represent working people there are a lot of working people who work on oil rigs and who work in coal mines and the fossil fuel industry, they need to hear where this role is going to be moving forward in this economy. and that is a mistake i think the democratic party makes is they want to address climate which is important. but you absolutely have to address jobs. >> it is very -- no, please. hillary clinton and that quote, i'm fairways scinated you bring up. right now in the primary process you have bernie sanders running at the democratic socialist coined of unpoll jetically. and --.

or do you think amy klobuchar's strategy is the way to go? >> i don't think we should look at this as strategy. the most important thing we need to do is lay out a public policy plan for the american people. could we do better in both categories of making healthcare more affordable, attacking climate change? you bet. and we need all ideas to the forefront. and i think it is going to be the ideas that the american public see as realistic and as rational and responsible that are going win. it is up to these candidates to make their case. and i think that there is a lot of room for more candidates to get in and for more discussion on these issues. we've let this whole green new deal medicare for all kind of

dominate the political discussion that. political discussion needs to be a lot broader. and i think a broader discussion about solutions is where the democratic party ought to head if they plan on being successful in 2020. >>, very interesting message. former senator hyde heitkamp. thank you for coming on tonight. >> thank you so much. >> when we return an update on al where a pair of tornados n ann skap kip al where skap kip when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. it neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪tum tum tum tum smoothies. also available tums sugar-free. half of small businesses fail within 5 years.ne. and more people than ever struggle with debt. intuit is here to change this story... with giant solutions like turbotax, quickbooks and mint that give everyone the power to prosper.

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before we go we want to go back to the breaking news out of lee county, al. the coroner told me this hour at least 14 people were killed including children after tornados ripped through the deep south. a search and rescue operation is under way and the death toll is expected to rise. nbc is in smith station, alabama with more. >> we have just learned that at least 14 people were killed in lee county, where two tornados touched down. among them an 8-year-old girl. also numerous injuries. we're getting a look inside of this town. and if you can come over here. take a look. this is a gas station, which was once a gas station. extensive damage. walls are no longer here. the roof was ripped off. the owner of this gas station tells us that the propane tanks, they were collecting them from

across the interstate here. one of employees was actually inside of the gas station when the tornado came through. he came outside and he took cover over here but this cement wall and that actually may have saved his life. he suffered some cuts and bruises. but is okay otherwise. we're told that emergency workers are going house to house, door to door right now assessing the damage. and seeing if people still need help. kasie? >> tammy leitner in smith station alabama. thanks very much. that's it for us tonight here on "kasie dc." back with you next week from 7:00 to 9:00 eastern. up next a special nbc documentary, "this happened: on account of sex." which explores whether now might be the right time to revisit the equal rights amendment.

for now, good night from washington. \s \s "this happened" "this happened" i am woman, hear me roar. >> i know we have still not shattered that glass ceiling. but someday someone will. >> call it an up rising. and a revolution. >> 2018 is proving to be the year of the woman. >> record number of female candidates running for office. >> women across this nation smashed barriers. at least 110 women won their congressional races.