that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. i'm chris jansing. "andrea mitchell reports" starts now. hi, andrea. >> hello. thanks so much, chris jansing. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," off to the races. beto o'rourke raises money as a candidate while joe biden almost makes it official. >> i have the most progressive of anybody running -- of anybody who would run. [ cheers and applause ] i didn't mean -- [ cheers and applause ] >> of anybody who would run. >> lashing out in a weekend-long twitter tirade, president trump once again insults the late senator john mccain seven months after the death of the american war hero.

>> he spends his weekend obsessing over great men because he knows it, and i know it and all of you know it, he will never be a great man. >> what was your instinctive reaction when you heard that? >> repulsive. repulsive. this is the moral vandalism that we see of the president that you speak kind of the dead and the guy who sacrificed for his country. >> more of cory booker with hardball's chris matthews coming up and threat assessment. chief of staff mick mulvaney is on damage control after the president said white nationalism is not a growing concern in the wake of the new zealand mosque massacre. >> the president is not a white supremacist. i'm not sure how many times we have to say that. ♪ ♪ >> and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump is slamming one of his most prominent potential 2020 rivals. pouncing on joe biden's saturday

slip by calling the former vice president another low i.q. individual in a tweet this morning. while the president shifts his focus to biden, beto o'rourke's campaign continues in the rust belt today. already through three stops in michigan and heading to ohio this afternoon with some serious financial tailwinds. the o'rourke campaign announcing $61 million in fund-raising during the first 24 hours after declaring his candidacy and that's more than bernie sanders' impressive $5.9 million haul announcing key details including average contributions and donors. o'rourke spoke with msnbc about the first event and the overwhelming show of support. >> i say thank you to everyone who is helping to build the largest grassroots campaign this country has ever seen funded completely by powered completely by people, not pacs, not lobbyist, not corporations and

special interests. >> what message do you hope that sends to your opponents and supporters? >> i hope to send the message to everyone who is out there who is looking for a different way to run a national race. >> joining me now is msnbc's garrett haik where he just finished an event and msnbc political analyst phil rutger, white house bureau chief at "the washington post" and a.b. stoddard, associate editor of real clear politics. clear, indeed, and south carolina state senator, former state democratic party chairman. thanks all. garrett, first to you. you are right there where beto just did the event and you were with him in iowa, as well and let's talk about what he's talking about today and the reactions to him and a lot of criticism, frankly, that he was more celebrity in buzz and substance with the vanity fair cover and all the rest. the vanity fair story. >> well, andrea, i have to tell you the vanity fair story and

the more controversial parts of it is frankly not something that has come up in iowa or in michigan beyond the reporters that have asked him. it's not something that voters are asking him about. i will mention the money briefly. that's not come up on the stump, but it is interesting. o'rourke had to prove to a certain degree raised in texas million in the senate race was not just because he was running against ted cruz, that it was for beto o'rourke and by coming up with the $6.1 million dollar and more than bernie sanders and kamala harris and more than the people he's running against now. the o'rourke campaign has checked that box and the excitement around him is real and as for the issues he's been talking about in michigan, i have to tell you, this most recent event is probably the most single interesting event of his that i've covered in part because it's one of the few that has a large percentage of african-americans here asking questions about their community to o'rourke who is someone who has asked and answered questions from reporters about the idea

that he is about as privileged as he could be as a white man in this country, a man that comes from wealth asking questions about how can you understand our community if you're not a part of it? what are you doing to educate yourself about it? why are there no african-american staff at this event? really being pushed on these issues and i can't summarize his answers netly here because he's one of those candidates that takes a good bit of time to answer them. it's been fascinating to watch him develop this in real time and come out and say, look, i don't have all these answers. i recognize my privilege and i'm trying to address them and i am here. i will tell you from the crowd in this room, a lot of folks are giving him credit as being essentially the first of these major candidates to come to detroit and to talk to these audiences. that is a luxury that o'rourke has in part because of that money and in part because he doesn't have a day job. he doesn't have to be on capitol hill or running a state right now. he can be grinding it out in these states. michigan doesn't vote for a year and having three stops here today is laying down a marker to these other candidates about

where he wants to compete and how he wants to do it, andrea. >> garrett hague with beto o'rourke, thank you so much. i know you have to keep hitting the trail to catch up with the next stop, as well. >> mike, let's talk about joe biden and there's a lot of talk that joe biden is about to get into the race. we both were out there watching him here in d.c. last week and it is clear he will go and let's talk about the slip of the tongue and also the president's response to him. >> it's interesting. >> this is why we cover these, vents, right? we knew that the plan was not necessarily for the vice president to announce his candidacy last week, but speaking to such friendly audiences and audiences that he has deep relationships with, the firefighters union and the home state and the democratic party we thought the moment would capture him and veer off even accidentally and that's what we saw. what was interesting is the larger point biden was making when he made that, talking about the new left. a little bit of edge to that when he referred to that because he understands the criticism he is getting from the left.

he said i stack my progressive credentials up against anybody, but the larger point is we need to be able to work together. i get criticized for saying nice things about mike pence, we remember, but we need to get things done and the other part of the speech that hasn't gotten as much attention and he was very stark in terms of the stakes of this election. he talked about the threat that donald trump poses to our own democracy. he said if you had told me two years ago that our democracy in this country would be in jeopardy i would have laughed at you. so the argument for joe biden as his campaign team sees it, if we can call it his campaign team just yet, is that he is the best candidate to take on donald trump and the hire the stakes the more likely democratic voters are to gravitate to him. >> just to go back, phil, to the 2016 campaign. i know we don't want to, but hillary clinton's whole argument, essential argument against donald trump was he's just not electable. there was the speech out in california where she sort of absolutely eviscerated his foreign policy credentials and

that was the premise of her campaign. how do you defeat donald trump if he's the nominee by saying that he's not electable when people have elected him and when people really don't want to respond to that? >> well, the problem for hillary clinton is elections are choices and voters have a choice between her and donald trump and they chose donald trump and that's going to be the same dynamic. >> i just want to interrupt because in that cafe, garrett, i ng you have beto o'rourke. >> i think it begins with treating everyone with respect. listening to everyone. not taking anyone or any vote for granted and not writing anybody off, and the only way to demonstrate that is to show up, and to be here. to be here today in detroit, but also yesterday in milwaukee. knocking on doors, meeting people who don't come out to an event, who may not know that i'm a candidate and that may not matter to me and making sure that i understand things from

their perspective is essential to solve the challenges in front of us. >> you were more direct about the president's rhetoric than i think i've seen you in some of these other stops. you saw the tweets over the weekend and attacking john mccain who has been dead for seven months now. what are you seeing about the way the president talks and how much do you feel you do have to engage with that. i know you don't want to run against him, at least not at this phase, but how do you engage with the way he's talking to country? >> he's trying to divide us, whether he's calling mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, calling neo-nazis very fine people and attacking muslim and at a time when we need greater union and power and having higher-paying jobs and a better living wage, we can't succumb to that. let's not play his game. let's keep our eyes on the prize, our ambitions, the goals by which i hope we'll be defined. health care for every single american. every job pays a living wage.

world class public school because we pay our public school educators a living wage and squarely facing the challenge of chime at change and in order to achieve those things all of us will have to come together. republican, democrat, independent, rural, urban, black, white, folks from every tradition of faith and of every status of immigration. all of us need to be on the same page and do this big work and that's what i'll stay focused on as a candidate. thank you. thank you. >> with beto o'rourke speaking to garrett hague in detroit in that cafe. phil rutger, we were talking about exactly that issue, to campaign against donald trump or do you campaign on something else or do you do both? he seemed to be combining those. >> trying to, and what we've heard from o'rourke so far including in the interview with garrett is a very aspirational message that will appeal to the democratic voters and at the end of the day this will be a brutal, grisly campaign against president trump and the

democrats will have to get in the mud with him in order to defeat him likely and so i think a lot of democrats will look to see beto o'rourke and the other candidates evolve their messaging to take on the president directly. >> one of the things that has been critical of him, a.b., is that he has not been specific enough about policies. von hilliard caught up with him in iowa this weekend and questioned him about that and whether he has to be more specific. >> a lot of folks we talk to, they're looking to you to provide more policy. when can they expect that? >> well, continue to come to these meetings and listen to me answer the questions that are posed to me. >> if you have all of the answers, why show up? if you're not ready to listen and to learn then what's the use of camp calling. >> you said in the past that you want to give americans the health care they need. >> it's one of the ways to guarantee high quality health

care for every single american. i'm no longer sure that that's the fastest way for us to get there. >> a.b., he's been behind the curve on specifics and maybe because of his rollout with "vanity fair" with the video was so buzzy and, you know, glossy, if you will, annie liebowitz's picture, as well and maybe that takes away from whatever substance he already had. your take on that? >> his launch was wobbly, no question. he's had to apologize several times in only a few days for things. he does appear to be a little bit spastic and jumping around on tables and you can make fun of this guy, no question, but i think there are two things at play. what he knows and he's a very substantive guy and i've been in private settings and he doesn't speak like a constitutional law professor to the voters the way president obama sometimes did, but he can behind closed doors. phil made a very important

point. this can be a referendum on trump or it can be a choice. certainly he's beatable. i think o'rourke is seeing two things at play and one is an aspirational message that tells the voters he's trying to divide us. he's weaponizing division and we want to come together to solve problems, too. the democratic primary electorate doesn't know what it's doing yet and what it's for. we have a long way to go. he is very astute to not take cemented positions this early when none of them, klobuchar and jill brand don't know where the voters will go. is it elect ability and now no one is talking about it. they don't know what they want yet and he made a good point. if you know the answer, why are you here to listen. he wants the hunger and earnestness to hear them. people do that the weekend before the election and he's doing it on week one instead of just being at rallies.

i think it's very smart to hold your fire and you can take those positions later and be firmly tied to them and now it's way too early. >> of course, in vanity fair, amy klobuchar was asked about that in iowa with chuck todd this weekend on "meet the pre press." >> you said you feel born to do this. >> that's the beto line. >> i have a lot of respect for beto and it's great to have some texas in this race, but no, i wasn't born to run for office just because growing up in the '70s in the middle of the country, i don't think many people thought a girl could be president. i wasn't born to run, but i am running. >> dick in south carolina, what do voters there want to hear? who is going to appeal to the south carolina primary voter because we don't know yet who all is going to be in. >> well, as you know, andrea, i

just finished a race for state senate in a district that donald trump carried against hillary clinton, i won as a democrat and i went door to door and i talked to many, many voters unlike many of the other folks you have on today, i went door to door, and i won a district donald trump won in 2016. what i can tell you is there are a huge numbers of democrats that are more pragmatic about this race than any race i've ever seen. they want somebody who can beat donald trump and a number of the independent folks out there that voted for donald trump or didn't vote at all, that was more a referendum on hillary clinton. she was imminently unlikable. joe biden is the only guy and the only person in this race that can take the fight to donald trump and be ready on day one to assume the office. now, we're going to talk about issues, but as i talk to my cohort, the democratic members, virtually every one of them is going to be behind joe biden.

>> and i know you and joe biden have had a long relationship in democratic politics. here is biden who was attacked by president trump today for being low i.q. this was biden in 1988 when he was running for president briefly and responding to that very question. >> i think i have a much higher i.q. than you do, i suspect. i went to law school on a full academic scholarship, the only one in my class that had a full academic scholarship. i graduated with three degrees from undergraduate schools and 165 credits and only needed 123 credits and i would be delighted to sit down and compare my i.q. to yours. >> mike, you're a biden watcher. you flagged that for us. 1988, i covered that campaign. i didn't remember that, but -- >> i wasn't covering that campaign. i know you weren't. we think he'll announce in april after this quarter is over, but

he's going up against $6 million man beto o'rourke, $5.9 million man bernie sanders. there's the age issue. there's, you know, the white man issue, diversity. >> i think when we talk about whether he's made a decision there are some people close to biden who tell me we're long past the point where a decision has been made. it's easier to say i haven't made a decision than i don't want to announce this quickly, but there are other decisions being made in the next few week, critical decisions because they not he doesn't have the same fund-raising apparatus that there might be other aspects of his campaign that they want to do unconventionally because he does have so much baggage and so much of a record to go through that's a strength and a weakness and part of what his team will be doing is coming to some final decisions about the nuts and bolts about how they're going to run this campaign and they do recognize that fund-raising ability and that small dollar donation which is now a real litmus test in the democratic party is something they have to work on. >> mike, dick, thank you very

much for being with us from south carolina. of course, garrett hague, the amazing garrett hague who is all over the midwest with the candidate, phil rutger and a.b. stoddard, thanks to you. the first democratic candidate to jump into the 2020 race, former congressman tom delaney will join me later in the show. up next, controlling the gun, the new zealand prime minister promising stricter gun laws after a mosque shooting in christchurch right here on "andrea mitchell reports" stay with us. right here on "andrea mitchell reports" stay with us. you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix. you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking,

or life- threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. talk to your doctor about chantix. we really pride ourselvesglass, on making it easy to get your windshield fixed. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪

- [woman] with shark's duo clean, i don't just clean, ♪ i deep clean carpets and floors, so i got this. yep, this too, and this, please. even long hair and pet hair are no problem, but the one thing i won't have to clean is this because the shark's self-cleaning brush roll removes the hair wrap while i clean. ♪ - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself.

you know reliable support when you have it, and that dependability is what we want to give our customers. at comcast, it's my job to constantly monitor our network. prevent problems, and to help provide the most reliable service possible. my name is tanya, i work in the network operations center for comcast. we are working to make things simple, easy and awesome.

and we have breaking news from the netherlands this hour. police searching for a gunman they say opened fire on a tram in the city of utrecht this morning killing three people, injuring five. the mayor is calling it possible terror. we'll continue to monitor that situation and bring you the latest, of course, but today new zealand's prime minister. >> sindha ardern is promising stricter gun laws killing one as young as 3 years old at a mosque on friday. thousands of students gathering today in front of al noor mosque to remember the victims. one man is being hailed a hero, preventing more fatalities by grabbing one of the shooter's empty guns and chasing him with the weapon. >> i just wanted to take his focus out from the mosque. any time, i hope this never, ever happens, but any situation

if i can save some life i will jump in. >> nbc's sarah harman is in christchurch, new zealand. sarah, what is the prime minister promising to do? how do they get this done that quickly? can it be done? >> reporter: yeah, andrea. it's remarkable the speed at which this announcement came just three days after this massacre. the prime minister jacinda ardern saying there will be changes to the country's gun laws and they will come swiftly. she's promising to make specific proposals within ten days so we should be learning more very soon, but it does seem at this point that there's appetite for change. we know that there are reports of people who own guns voluntarily giving them up, bringing them to police stations voluntarily. we also know the rifle club where the shooter was a member has voluntarily closed the range and said the members of the rifle club are grieving. they don't want to be shooting

right now. >> what do we know about the victims, sarah? >> reporter: andrea, that 3-year-old that you mentioned muad ibrahim, he was attending with his father and brother who died. that was a real tragedy. right now 30 people are fighting for their lives in the hospital. nine of them are in critical condition including a young girl just 4 years old. you can see behind me this sea of flowers. christchurch is a city right now that is unified in its grief and focused on remembering the names and the faces of the victims and not the shooter, andrea? >> thanks so much, sarah harm an live for us in christchurch, new zealand. coming up, beyond the pale. president trump publicly lashing out at senator john mccain seven months after the congressman's death. his colleagues joining me next. stay with us right here on

msnbc. ht here on msnbc.an the more you know. guys do whatever it takes to deal with shave irritation. so, we re-imagined the razor with the new gillette skinguard. it has a unique guard between the blades. that's designed to reduce irritation during the shave. because we believe all men deserve a razor just for them. the best a man can get. gillette.

[laughter] ♪ ♪ "i'm okay." ♪ ♪

webut some of us turn outhose dreams...... into action... the bookers. the doers. the 'hit that confirmation button and let's go!'- ers! because bookers know that the perfect place to stay... is right there for the booking. be a booker at booking.com the world's #1 choice for booking accommodations. [zara larsson - "wow"] ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop drop say oh my drop drop drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪

president trump went on a twitter tirade over the weekend tweeting and re-tweeting 50 times attacking everyone from special counsel robert mueller

to congresswoman ilhan omar to john mccain seven months after he died of brain cancer. the president writing it was indeed just proven in paper, last in his class annapolis john mccain who sent the dossier to the media only to have it printed before the election. he and the dems working together failed as usual. even the fake news refused this garbage, but the president is wrong on so many counts. let's fact check. senator mccain gave james comey that dossier in early december 2016 after the election after hearing about it at a foreign policy congress in halifax, nova scotia, and it was not news to the fbi. they'd already been studying it based on their own sources. also, mccain was not last in his class. he was actually fifth from last, something he often acknowledged. joining me now is jack reed the top democrat on the arms services committee and he serves on the intelligence committee and is a friend of senator mccain's. your reaction to this presidential tweet? >> well, it's despicable.

john mccain is a hero. he joined the navy at 17. he served with distinction in courage and valor and then he came and served as a member of congress, a united states senator and he always put the constitution above his own personal interests and he's the example we should be emulating, not criticizing. >> there's a lot of speculation as to where this weekend, why going after john mccain again and linking him to the dossier. what does he seem to be so obsessed with, frankly? >> well, obsession is a good word and want a good word for a president. we would hope our president would be not obsessed, but competent, thoughtful, reasonable and all those things that seem to be the contradiction of obsession. he has always seemed to be someone who can't sort of

tolerate the fact that john mccain is so many things he is not. he did not seek to serve his country. one would think the president tried to avid service. john mccain served at 17 like his father and grandfather before him served. his son followed in his tradition, two sorngsns, i beli. he represents the ideal that most americans have and the president is resentful and uses his resentment constantly with any, even the slightest provocation. >> senator cory booker today was on the stump with chris matthews for "hardball" tonight and he also reacted to it. let me play that for you. >> he's a hero and a sitting president, a commander in chief, what's that say to other men and women that are serving this nation? i found it repulsive. just another example of his moral vandalism and him just tearing at the fabric of this country as opposed to bonding us

together he continues to try to pit us against each other. >> senator lindsay graham, john mccain's close friend for many years and partner, of course, on the arms services committee with you, as well. he tweeted that john mccain, as to john mccain and his devotion to his country. he stepped forward to risk his life for his country and served honorably under difficult circumstances and was one of the most consequential senators in the history of the body and nothing about his service will ever be changed or diminished. senator graham is still not criticizing the president. >> i think the president deserves to be criticized. again, this is a gratuitous slap at an american hero, not based on the facts as you point out so correctly, andrea, and it's just a kind of almost a childish kind of fit that's being thrown, and senator mccain, i think, again, bothers the president because he represents many of the things

the president did not do, cannot do and would not do, serve his country, do it in the military and do it in a way that brought honor and respect by everyone, and i think he feels haunted in a way, rather strange, by senator mccain's record of courage, valor and service. you know, and as to senator mccain's poor record at annapolis. having worked with john for many years, he would argue that being fifth from the bottom at annapolis was better than being anywhere at west point, i know that personally. >> i think -- don't you have a record at west point yourself? >> i do, but i was a little close to the top than the bottom, but john's service more than bore out his record at annapolis. >> the rivalry. >> yes, indeed. >> i got that. saudi arabia, i wanted to ask you about that. "the new york times" is reporting exclusively today that the saudi crown prince's brutal

drive to crush dissenters began with this unit a year before the killing of khashoggi and that there is classified reporting to this, that u.s. officials have been briefed on it as a member of two important committee, i assume that you've had some access to intelligence and to other reporting. what about the denials that come from the administration that there's anything definitive about the crown prince's record? >> well, i think the public reporting is very compelling. again, not much happens, if anything at all in that country without the crown prince knowing about it, if not approving it and it is consistent with the impunity that these sorties demonstrated when they kill khashoggi that they weren't afraid of any consequences, and i think that underscores again the fact that they've been doing this with impunity within saudi arabia and doing it to minor

figures around the world, bringing them back to saudi arabia and then when they went into turkey, was there just this complete lack of any type of sense of the horrific actions that were undertaken, and there are strong, strong suggestions that this was premeditated and it was not, you don't bring a forensic specialist with a bone saw if you simply want to try to convince the gentleman to return to saudi arabia, and the people involved, the leader of the band in turkey, the communicated a link between the government in riyadh and these -- these terrorists, if you will or at least assassins had close, close ties on almost a constant basis with the crown prince. when you put that all together from public sources it seems overwhelming that the crown prince not only was aware of it, but may have been involved in it and we're trying to take steps in the congress on a bipartisan basis to hold accountable everyone involved in this khashoggi incident, and also to

get a report from the intelligence community, unclassified, that will give us more information to work with. >> i think you're referring to al kahtani who -- >> al kahtani. >> there are credible reports was in the jail cells and overseeing the torture and threats against several of these women. one particular woman who had been arrested for protesting against the driving ban and is still in jail. these women are now being put on trial. there were others including dual nationals, americans who are being held there. what can you in congress do to protect our own citizens and others? >> well, first of all, you have to have the president stand up and condemn these activities outright. this is completely inappropriate. he has continued to dance around the whole issue of khashoggi and the crown prince's potential involvement and he's diminished

the reporting of our intelligence committee and that's absolutely wrong and unfortunately, as long as that continues i think the crown prince will figure he has the green light to continue these episodes, to continue these harassments of his own subjects. these pseudotrials of which the press can't get access to, no one knows what the outcome is about. so i think it begins really with the president. as long as he tolerates it it's a green light and it's green light to horrendous behavior. >> jack reed, thank you so much, senator. >> thank you, andrea. the president downplaying the threat of white nationalism despite warnings from the fbi and homeland security. stay with us here on msnbc. sec. stay with us here on msnbc

[zara larsson - "wow"] ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop drop say oh my drop drop drop ♪ ♪ make u say oh my god my drop drop ♪ ♪ make you're jaw drop make u say oh my god ♪ but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

do you see today that white nationalism is a rising threat around the world? >> i don't really. it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. i guess if you look at what happened in new zealand, perhaps that's the case. i don't know enough about it yet. >> president trump downplaying his growing threat of white supremacists after the terror attack in new zealand in which the accused gunman sent an apparent manifesto about his hatred of immigrants and even named president trump as a symbol of white identity. it is in contrast to warnings in 2017 from the fbi and homeland security that white supremacist

group his carried out more attacks than any other domestic extremist groupses over the past 16 years and were likely to carry out more. joining me is kristen welker at the white house. ashton parker, msnbc political analyst and kimberly atkins for wbur and msnbc contributor. kristen, the president still dismissing these concerns. he was briefed back in 2017 about this, and about the threat of white nationalism, and then, of course, we have the whole issue of charlottesville and the way he responded to that. >> absolutely right, andrea, and i pressed his senior adviser kellyanne conway on this very point earlier today. i said why is the president breaking with his own administration, the assessment of his own fbi? kellyanne conway essentially pivoted and said, look, the president has denounced this attack. he will continue to assist new zealand and then i followed up with will we hear from the president? they're getting a lot of questions about this, andrea.

is this not the time for president trump to make some very strong denouncement of white nationalism given the assessment by his fbi? no indication that he's going to do that, but worth noting that mick mulvaney didn't take that option off of the table over the weekend when he was asked about it. >> and chris matthews asked cory booker about all of this in an exclusive interview that's going to air on "hardball" later today. this is part of what he had to say. >> is he racist? >> he's a guy that -- >> is he a racist? >> racist, i think he's a racist and his language hurts people. his language is causing pain, fear. the way he's talking and he's making people afraid. we have a president that can't stand up with any moral authority and remind us that when -- injustice anywhere injustice is a threat to justice everywhere and it's despicable. >> so he's being widely criticized, kimberly.

does this become a campaign issue or is this something just within the democratic party? does it become a general election issue? >> it's definitely going to be a general election issue and right now the discussion about white nationalism seems to just be happening in the democratic party. that's a problem with republicans. we have seen the president on the campaign trail talking about everything from not letting muslims set foot on american soil to calling people from mexico and other countries, rapists and murderers and this is the kind of dialogue that white nationalism feeds on, and he is contributing to that. what we don't have now is before we had folks like paul ryan, mitt romney and others within the republican party calling him out on that. right now we have a lot of silence and so this is a problem not just for the president, but politically for republicans, too. >> and monica -- and monica lewinsky, i was going to say, ashley parker, spoke out very honestly today, well, on hbo

with john oliver talking about what she's gone through and the transformation after the public shaming that she feels that she certainly experienced back in the '90s. let's watch a little bit of that. >> it was not only just the slut shaming and not only having had an intimate relationship with someone who is now describing me in a way that was like no young woman would want to be described. there was also my looks. i -- you know, i was about the touch ups and the makeup because part of my vanity now comes from just the wound of having been made fun of for my weight, for, you know, people saying i was unattractive. >> the irony, ashley, is that the first lady is today having another one of her be best events at the white house and talking about bullying and shaming. >> that's right. what's interesting here is monica lewinsky now is talking

in a way that in 2019, on the one hand in many ways especially in this me, too, era resonates far more forcefully and feels much more real and like more action might be taken than it would have had these same things at the time. by the same token, you have a president who is sort of on the vanguard of being a bully and engaging in some of this shaming. not to monica lewinsky, but just in general that she is articulating so well while as you said his wife has an initiative that runs exactly counter to the behavior of her husband. >> and all of these issues coming to a fore in a campaign, kristen welker, where you're seeing more and more democrats jumping into the race, kristen gillibrand over the weekend. we've spoken about beto and joe biden about to jump in. you have generational divides and gender, race among democrats. the contrast to the president if he's up for re-election is going to be pretty profound.

>> pretty profound and you also have progressive sichism, and tt that so many candidates are describing themselves as progressives and former vice president joe biden over the weekend when he made the tongue slip indicating that he's the most progressive candidate in the race and he quickly corrected himself and said well, if he were to get into the race, but it was notable that he described himself as a progressive and also notable that you have so many female candidates and you have so many of the male candidates saying if they do win the nomination, they feel as though they want to have a woman on the ticket, andrea. it's a real sign of the times. >> joe biden also referring to the current debate as the new left, interestingly. to be continued. kristen welker, ashley parker and kimberly atkins. coming up, the first man, the list of 2020 candidates keeps on growing, but joining me now is the first democrat to enter the race. join us next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. reports" only on msnbc

of soft-serve ice cream? i got cones, anybody wants one! oh, yeah! get ya some! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. ed! ed! we struck sprinkles! [cheers] believe it. geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. a cfp professional is trained, knowledgeable, and committed to financial planning in your best interest. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org.

find your certified financial planner™ professional when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. and got them back on track. you're smart,eat you already knew that. but it's also great for finding the perfect used car.

you'll see what a fair price is and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. now you're even smarter. this is truecar.

with the democratic presidential primary in high gear, one democratic hopeful has been laying the ground for the white house bid since summer of 2017. only months after president trump took office. former congressman john delaney was the first democrat to enter the 2020 race. but now beto o'rourke, bernie sanders, are at the top of the crowded field. how does the lady get to the head of the pack? john delaney joins me now.

congressman, you didn't get back from iowa until 12:30 this morning. you've been to iowa 14 times, new hampshire 14 times. south carolina, you're going to go to all 50 states. >> yep. >> how do you compete against beto raising $6 million on day one? >> beto and i came into congress together, so beto is a friend of mine. mine strategy is obviously very much focused on the early states. one of the reasons i got in so early, i think i'm the right person for the job and i have the right vision for the country, but not enough people knew who i was or still know who i am. but i'm pursuing kind of that old-fashioned early stage strategy. we're doing well in the early states. we have very high name i.d. i've been to all 99 counties in iowa. this weekend i had packed houses at all of my events, 50, 60, 70 people turning up in small towns in rural iowa. >> well, beto o'rourke, as you point out, you were elected at the same time, he was a friend of yours in congress. >> yes. >> maureen dowd primary, if you

will, this sunday's column, said we have the one again, a new one, which is what she always called obama, a lanky man with a young family, a rock star ora, ready to fluff his pillows and a frothing fox news. what do you do about the celebrity factor and the way the media seems to, you know, follow like a magnet? >> i actually think the race is wide open. if you actually talk to democrats, right, most of them, the overwhelming majority of them are undecided. they know some of us better than others, right, which influences early polling. but what democrats really understand is the most important thing for us to do is to beat donald trump. that's absolutely by any measure the single-most important thing to do. and i think what they're also starting to understand is the best way to do that is with a candidate that can build a big tent and get progressives, moderates, independents and even

disaffected republicans. if we can do that, which i think i can uniquely do, we can also govern. increasingly the democratic party particularly the early states are thinking about that. one of the things that precipitated it in many ways was showered schultz, because if you think about his kind of toying with running, it's made everyone in the democratic party suddenly focus on how do we win, right? and they don't want to lose the center. so i think the person we will ultimately put up, if we want to win, is someone who is going to be more moderate, more centrist, who wants to do big things, kind of rethink our future because we need that. someone who is committed to bringing this terribly divided nation back together. that is in many ways the most important thing we're dealing with, and getting things done for the american people. that's how we'll win and be able to governor. >> that is a good general election strategy by all accounts. how do you win the primetimery against an increasingly left ward turn in your own party? >> listen, you have to have big

ideas for our future. you have to have a plan for climate change, which i do. you have to deal with the income inequality in our country, which i do. you have to know what is going on with immigration in this country, how we're going to think about foreign policy. you have to have really big ideas to excite people. but at the end of the day i think this is going to be a unique election. democrats understand the most important thing for us to do is to win. democrats are going to say, i actually care about your general election strategy. i want you to win. i can't the thought of this current president being reelected. the wayne gretzky quote, you don't skate to where the puck is, you skate to where it's going. in the democratic party, we need someone who can win and govern. what people are frustrated about is we don't do anything. the world changes, technology, globalization, everything is changing in our society. we haven't done the basic things we should have done to prepare our citizens and our world for that future.

and that's what primary voters are really interested in, how are you going to get some of this stuff done? we care a lot about climate change. we haven't done anything for ten years. what's your plan to get it done? >> this is the beginning of a correspondization. >> thank you. >> i hope we can keep it up throughout the primary process. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you, congressman. john delaney. and we'll be right back. i deep clean carpets and floors, so i got this. yep, this too, and this, please. even long hair and pet hair are no problem, but the one thing i won't have to clean is this because the shark's self-cleaning brush roll removes the hair wrap while i clean. ♪ - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. 4 out of 5 people who have a stroke, their first symptom... is a stroke. 80 percent of all strokes and heart disease? preventable. and 149 dollars is all it takes to get screened

and help take control of your health. we're life line screening... and if you're over 50... call this number, to schedule an appointment... for five painless screenings that go beyond regular check-ups. we use ultrasound technology to literally look inside your arteries... for plaque which builds up as you age- and increases your risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease. and by getting them through this package, you're saving over 50%. so call today and consider these numbers: for just $149 you'll receive five screenings that could reveal what your body isn't telling you. i'm gonna tell you that was the best $150 i ever spent in my life. life line screening. the power of prevention. call now to learn more. the big drug companies don't see they see us as profits. we're paying the highest prescription drug prices in the world so they can make billions?

americans shouldn't have to choose between buying medication and buying food for our families. it's time for someone to look out for us. congress, stop the greed. cut drug prices now. we really pride ourselves >> ton making it easyautoglass, to get your windshield fixed. >> teacher: let's turn in your science papers. >> tech vo: this teacher always puts her students first. >> student: i did mine on volcanoes. >> teacher: you did?! oh, i can't wait to read it. >> tech vo: so when she had auto glass damage... she chose safelite. with safelite, she could see exactly when we'd be there. >> teacher: you must be pascal. >> 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 ♪ what if you had fewer headaches and migraines a month? botox® prevents headaches and migraines before they even start.

botox® is for adults with chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® injections take about 15 mins. in your doctor's office and are covered by most insurance. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. 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. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember to follow the show

online on facebook and on twitter at mitchell reports. i'll be heading to the middle east with secretary of state pompeo, and meanwhile here is ali velshi and stephanie ruhle with "velshi & ruhle." >> hello, everyone. i'm ali velshi. >> i'm stephanie ruhle. let's get smarter. >> dutch police are looking for a person they say opened fire on a tram south of amsterdam. three people are confirmed dead, nine injured according to u trek's mayor. he said they're looking at a possible terror motive from the suspect. >> city is very much on lockdown. you can hear the police and ambulances going around. >> and terror in new zealand, the death toll from friday's attacks rises to 50, as victims are identified and laid to rest, the prime minister promises -- promises sweeping gun law changes in the next ten days.