with ridiculous bull [ bleep ]. and rare reversal. donald trump lets his education secretary take the fall for trying to cut funding for the special olympics even though this is her agency's third attempt to defund the program. >> i want to thank the president for responding to your voices. that's how democracy is supposed to work. and guess what, it worked. and this breaking news, good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, we begin with the breaking news, political chaos and paralyzing uncertainty for the united kingdom. prime minister theresa may's future in doubt after failing for a third time to rally a majority of british lawmakers around a brexit deal to leave the european union, putting britain back on the clock with a deadline to deliver a brexit plan to the eu just two weeks

from now. joining me now, nbc news cheap global correspondent and nbc's a ali. bill neely, what next? >> that's a good question, andrea, nobody knows. this was meant to be a day when britain left the european union. instead it's a day when britain's deepest political crisis in, i don't know, half a century has just deepened again. it's deja vu all over again. as you said, theresa may tried for a third time to get her deal that she's tried to get through twice now, that she negotiated with the european union over two years. she tried to get it through. it failed, this time by 58 votes. it failed before by 230, and 149. she keeps trying, she might get it through by christmas.

what happens next? the default position now is in two weeks' time britain will crash out of the european union on april 12th. the eu said it was fully prepared for that unless it comes up with plan b. what is that plan b? nobody knows, nobody in parliament knows. a couple of days ago they floated eight alternatives, and each one was voted down with a fairly resounding "no." they'll try again on monday. it's chaos. it's a shambles. but it's deeply, deeply serious. and the mood on the street here is ugly. lots of people behind me, in fact there are thousands, have been shouting things like "betrayal" and "traitor" to those in parliament. so a nasty mood here. a prime minister hanging by a thread and a parliament, andrea, that is still deadlocked. >> and bill neely, you referred to the mood on the street. ali aruzi has been out there talking to people. ali, what are you hearing? >> reporter: hi there, andrea.

we're here in parliament square where several thousand people have gathered throughout the day today. most of the folks that are out here today want the united kingdom to leave the european union. they are angry to say the least that this hasn't happened sooner. and you talk to most of the people out here and they feel they have been betrayed by their government. they don't support either mainstream party, the labor or the conservative party. and funnily enough, many of the people we spoke to here say they want a donald trump type figure to take control here, a member of not mainstream politics, somebody that will deliver to them what they want. but of course that only gives half the picture. there is half the country here who don't want a donald trump type figure and there are deep divisions in the uk which don't look like they're going to heal anytime soon. what the fact of the matter is here, that neither side seems to be getting what they want. so the country remains in deadlock.

it is somewhat chaotic here, as the country struggles to get through this very, very difficult situation in the uk. there are a lot of very colorful banners where we're standing here, saying "leave means leave," "we want brexit and we want it now." so folks here are adamant about what they want but as i said, there's another half of the country that feel very differently, andrea. >> and to that point, the country is really divided, and the numbers of people out in the street in it parliament square do not tell the full story according to all the polling and everything else we know. and donald trump has actually played a very disruptive role in this. back when he was coming from a very nasty nato meeting and went to checkers and gave an interview to one of her opposing newspapers on the eve of that, and most recently his son sort of patrollitrolling her, saying

should have taken his advice and saying that he liked boris johnson, her chief tory opponent. >> donald trump allied himself firmly to the brexit cause. i went with him when he went to his golf course in scotland the day after the referendum. i think it was a light bulb moment for him, if the conservative, boring, set in their ways british people could vote for brexit maybe the american people could vote for him a few months later. >> this was during the campaign. >> it was during the campaign. and he took time out to go to his golf course in scotland to do this. he came to britain last july. he was due to meet theresa may in checkers and he said three things in the "sun" newspaper, one that theresa may hasn't listened to his advise, two, it would make a trade deal with the u.s. very difficult if brexit didn't pass, and third, boris johnson would make a great prime minister, a bullseye against

theresa may. i'm told they had a very bad conversation when donald trump was flying to a summit, he was on air force one talking to theresa may and there was not a lot of love in that conversation. >> and in fact now, who are her allies? her own party is against her. she said she would quit if this vote went through, which was to try to bring some of her tory opponents on with her. and where is the dup, the irish party, those members of parliament? one of the original problems with getting a brexit vote is how would the irish border be handled. >> andrea, i spent many years of my career reporting on westminster politics. the truth about theresa may is she is awful at retail politics. putting her arm around someone, saying, we really need you to support us, you have a great future ahead of you, doing that kind of shmoozing that is necessary in all forms of democratic politics to get

people on your side. she hasn't done that. so we've found ourselves in the bizarre position that this week she goes and speaks to her caucus and says to them, if you vote for the deal, i'll stand down as prime minister. obviously, if you don't, i stay on. so she's saying, not back me or sack me, it's back me then sack me. it's an extraordinary position that theresa may is now going to be the fourth successive british prime minister from the conservative party brought down by europe. first margaret thatcher in 1990, major in '97, david cameron in 2016 after he if he would the -- after he held the referendum, and now theresa may. >> and the uk and what happens to it is a major factor in the global economy. >> reporter: yes, 50% of britain's trade is with the european union. 15% of the european union's

trade is with britain. although britain would be the bigger loser, the eu would lose as well. it's a lose/lose scenario all around. but it's not just economic. this is a culturaissue. the rise of donald trump, if you want to go back to the tea party and newt gingrich, these are cultural issues. a lot of people on the streets here are from the less well off and for them it's not an economic issue, it's an issue of parliamentary sovereignty. and part of the problem is many of these people hark back to a time when britain was an imperial power and they believe that britain can play that kind of role in the world again and a lot of the realists, if you like, or people on the "remain" side, are saying no. and in an era of globalized trade and great trade blocs, britain needs to be part of one

of them. it's economic but it's also deeply, deeply cultural, andrea. and this is a country that, you know, the very fabric of this country is being torn apart in all of these ways. >> fascinating. bill neely and jon -- a final thought? >> a very final thought. what happens next? for all its mind-numbing complect, i think we're clos closer -- complexity, i think we're closer to crashing out of a deal and closer to getting a deal. one of those extreme positions will hold sway. >> wow. thanks to all. coming up, victory lap. president trump tries to claim complete vindication although no one other than stay with us. er report. stay with us (danny) let me get this straight. after a long day of hard work... ...you have to do more work? every day you're nearly fried to a crisp, professionally! can someone turn on the ac?! no? oh right...

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and welcome back. the president today in florida after a vintage rally in michigan thursday night, ticking through a list of grievances to a raucous crowd, falsely claiming that he's been completely exonerated by the mueller report. >> the collusion delusion is over. the single greatest political hoax in the history of our country. and guess what? we won. >> that was in grand rapids, in jerry ford's old district. imagine what former president jerry ford would have said.

leading the new republican campaign to try to discredit house intelligence chairman adam schiff. >> little pencil neck adam schiff. he's got the smallest, thinnest neck i've ever seen. he is not a long ball hitter. >> joining me now, nbc white house correspondents which ten welker, peter baker, chief white house correspondent at "the new york times," anne gearan, and msnbc contributor jonathan capehart. kristen welker, that rally vintage donald trump. it was certainly the start, if you will, of the 2020 reelect campaign. >> it certainly was, andrea. it gave us a good preview of what we can expect to see. president trump declaring victory and vindication over the russia investigation despite the fact, as you say, the full mueller report has not yet been made public, but also taking

very sharp aim at his political rivals, adam schiff among them. he also took aim at elizabeth warren, no surprise there. and this is the president in his element. he thrives off a big crowd that's feeding off his energy and they were certainly fired up last night, and clearly he was in a critical state that helped sweep him into the white house. and he's going to need it again if he wants to win reelection. we got a really good preview of things to come, andrea. the one thing i will note that gets a little bit risky for the president is he talked about health care. he's making it clear that the republican party now owns health care. they're trying to overturn obamacare, as you know, in the courts. but of course they don't have a plan to replace it with. so it is a risky strategy. it was also on display last night during that rally last night. >> and of course republicans reacting to that as well. at the same time, the personal attack on adam schiff, the attempt to completely undermine

his authority over the intelligence committee, seeing those house republicans going after him yesterday led by devin nunes who completely discredited the committee, which had long been the gold standard of house investigating bipartisanship. let's play a little of that, peter baker and the rest of you, and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> you have chosen, instead of addressing the hearing, to simply attack me, consistent with the president's attacks. my colleagues may think it's okay that the russians offered dirt on a democratic candidate for president as part of what was described as the russian government's effort to help the trump campaign. you might think it's okay that the president himself called on russia to hack his opponent's e-mails if they were listening. you might think that the president's son-in-law sought to establish a secret back channel of communications with the russians. you might think it's okay that the national security adviser

designate secretly conferred with the russian ambassador about sanctions you. might say that's all okay, you might say that's just what you need to do to win. but i don't think it's okay. >> will the gentleman yield? >> will not yield. >> you just said things about all of us that we -- >> i will not yield. >> we think you ought to allow us to speak -- >> you can use your five minutes to speak. you attacked me in your opening statement and i responded. >> i have not had an opportunity to respond at all especially to your statements of what we think, because no one over here thinks that. you cannot speak for us. >> order. >> you are not recognized. ambassador mcfaul, you are recognized. >> well. the speaker of the house nancy pelosi today just tweeting, adam schiff's calm, professional leadership is something we should all be proud of, unlike his predecessor, she means devin nunes, his time as chairman of the house intelligence committee has been a shining example of

how to responsibly carry out the committee's mission. peter baker, are democrats on the defensive until they can see the mueller report, not just the way it's been capsulized in the cliff notes from the attorney general? >> yeah, no, i think you're right, democrats are on the defensive because the two lines that we now know from the mueller report, just two sentences as quoted by bill barr, you know, are enough to validate president trump's position that he has gone on the offensive, as you showed in that rally excerpt. the two lines of course are that the robert mueller investigation did not establish a conspiracy between the trump campaign and russia, and that the robert mueller investigation did not establish there was criminal obstruction of justice although he pointed out he did not exonerate the president. we don't know what else he found. what adam schiff just did in that clip was point out all the unrebuted facts which continue to be out there which will no doubt be covered in the mueller

report. one standard is being unindicted but that doesn't mean you're in the clear. there are things the president did that are not indictable but are still objectionable. what we'll see, i presume, in the mueller report is a fuller explanation of what happened and didn't happen and that will presumably give fodder to the president's supporters, and critics, i suppose, to examine what his actions were, short of whether they were indictable, to say, yes, this is the way you should behave or not behave as a candidate or sitting president. >> anne gearan, the barr memo doesn't even have a complete sentence on the subject of conspiracy. it picks it up in the middle of a sentence. we don't know what other phrases and paragraphs, we certainly don't know the underlying evidence. >> right. and "did not establish" is very, very different than "found absolutely not a skcintilla or shred of evidence." that's a common misreporting of

what little we do know about what's in the report. as you say, it's a fragment of a sentence. and it's a completely logical thing from the president's perspective to take that and to amplify it into the victory dance that he did last night. but let me just make one very quick point, which is that we're now essentially doing exactly what the president tried and hoped would be the result here, which is everyone, democrats, republicans, media, everyone, is essentially judging the validity of the outcome of the mueller report on whether or not there was collusion. we presume there is an enormous amount more in that report, some of it probably to the president's benefit, some of it probably to his detriment. but it is not only about collusion. and the president has narrowed the scope to just that one point. >> and jonathan, i want to bring in barbara mcquade for a moment,

msnbc contributor, former u.s. attorney, barbara, one of the things here that anne and peter are making clear is, we don't know what is there that could be damaging or exonerating for the president, that does not reach the level of something that can be prosecuted beyond a reasonable doubt which is the justice department standard for bringing a case. >> yes, and two very curious things about this, the department of justice has said a sitting president cannot be indicted and the only remedy is impeachment, yet we see william barr using the standard that gets used in routine criminal cases for indictment, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. i would submit that's the wrong standard to go looking at this. and the other thing is, as they have pointed out, we don't know what other facts are out there. and i can't help but wonder if this delay, which william barr now says will take weeks before we see the full report while redactions are made to grand jury material, if this isn't a deliberate effort to be able to

sort of cherry pick these high principle findings and desensitize the public that president trump has been cleared or exonerated or whatever word you want to use and by the time we see the full report, in weeks, weeks from now, and the details dribble out, that people will have moved on. i don't see any reason why robert mueller could not have written a report that could be shared with the public immediately that perhaps has an addendum or some redactions for the grand jury material and a public portion that could be read. and i am wondering whether there wasn't a deliberate strategy, to be able to pronounce the president exonerated and then have the facts come out later when the public has moved on. >> exactly. jonathan capehart, let me just -- you are maybe too young to remember kenneth starr but rachel maddow provided a very helpful look back at what happened within 48 hours of kenneth starr concluding his report, more than 400 pages, plus all of the underlying

material. take a look at the pictures, cartons and cartons of material. one copy for the democrats, one copy for the republicans, all delivered to the gerald r. ford building on capitol hill to be distributed very quickly to the public through the media. it was read live on the air. and some of it was pretty disgusting because of the details. but this was nothing that involved classified material, and it was nothing that was deliberately or politically redacted to prevent embarrassment for the president and his allies, jonathan. >> what an innocent time, andrea. it was a completely different time in america where you had even an independent counsel going after the president of the united states, operating by the rules. >> not exactly. >> as we knew then. >> leaking, going to the public, not observing any of the proprieties of robert mueller. >> compared to where we are now

is what i mean, in terms of the innocence. it is interesting that -- and i'm picking up on something that barbara just said about wondering why special counsel mueller didn't have a report ready that was able to be given to the public right away. and i'm sitting here wondering, maybe special counsel mueller was still operating as the institutionalist that he is, operating on good faith that the justice department and the attorney general would do right by the process, right by his oath, and what we have seen in the last week is really, to my mind, a pr effort on behalf of the administration, on the part of the administration, to set the narrative. and that's why i think what chairman schiff did yesterday was so vital and so important, by listing over and over and over again, you might think it's okay, and then each one was a bullet point to pick up on something that peter said earlier in the segment, that it

might not -- we might find out through the mueller report, when it's released, that there might not be anything criminal but there might be many things objectionable. and so for chairman schiff to lay out objectionable thing after objectionable thing after objectionable thing, it won't change the narrative, but it puts on record for the american people, that can be played on a loop by democrats from now through the election, to remind people about what's going on here. >> if we ever see the report, indeed. >> that is true. >> jonathan capehart, anne gearan, peter baker, barbara mcquade, thanks to all. homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen is asking for sweeping authority to deport unaccompanied migrant children. stay with us. these days we're all stressed. i hear you, sister. stress can affect our minds. i call this dish, "stress."

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as president trump today threatens again to close the border in tweets, the administration is seeking sweeping new authority to crack down. nbc's julia ainsley was first to report homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen will

ask congress for the authority to deport unaccompanied migrant children more quickly, stating in a letter obtained by nbc news, we are grappling with a humanitarian and security catastrophe that's worsening by the day. she will ask to hold families seeking asylum in detention longer until their cases are decided and to allow immigrants to apply for asylum from their own countries. julia ainsley is nbc's justice reporter and joins us from outside doj. julia, thanks very much. i think there are court orders saying you can't hold them for the extended period of time. so how will they get around court orders and other restrictions? >> reporter: well, and they've tried to get around that court order before, andrea, but they've been stopped. this would be a legislative proposal which could very well be dead on arrival because of democrats controlling the house, but it lays out how this administration wants to deal with this influx in numbers. they're very much focused on the poll factors which they see as loopholes in our immigration

system. the piece that stood out to me was the idea that she doesn't o give children from central america the same rights they have now interview they're held by health and human services and then sent to live with a sponsor or relative in the united states. instead she wants to deport them. ima i just got off a call with senior department of homeland security officials where we pushed them on this very question. if not to hhs, then where? they couldn't give a definitive answer. it's not clear whether or not they would try to get around laws and court orders to protect children who come without their families. >> and what about the restrictions that have already been put in place to limit the numbers of asylum, which is in contradiction to international law as well as u.s. law? >> that's right. i mean, this administration has come up against a lot of court challenges. there have been times when they've tried to make it impossible to claim asylum if you enter between ports of entry

but that is in violation of international law, because you're able to claim asylum in this country no matter where you enter from. i know that the secretary of they essentially come to the homeland security has done some u.s. side of the border, claim work with the u.n. to try to asylum, and are sent back into find a way for people to apply for asylum outside of the mexico, in some cases very country. but dangerous cities like tijuana as affect their rights to apply for they could wait months or years asylum here. as you know, seekers. to see a judge in the united states to decide their case. it is true there's a big influx we're seeing, some of the daily border crossings are at 13-year highs, over 4,000 immigrants in one day. but this letter lays out how this department wants to deal with that. and it's not clear that this would even get anywhere near the president's desk because of the long haul it would take to get through congress. >> but it is already a campaign issue indeed. julia ainsley, thank you so much. and coming up, one-man army. president trump continuing his assault on obamacare without the backing of his own republican congressional leaders. sion ever. i switched to geico and saved hundreds.

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♪ 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 ♪ we have a chance of killing obamacare. we almost did it. but somebody unfortunately surprised us with thumbs down. but we'll do it a different way. so we're going to get rid of obamacare. and i said it the other day. the republican party will become the party of great health care. >> that shot at "somebody," that was john mccain, another shot at john mccain, for voting to keep obamacare in his last vote.

president trump is campaigning to get rid of obamacare but hasn't proposed a plan to replace it. that scares republican leaders in congress. they suffered a defeat in the 2018 midterms where house democrats rolled the health care issue to victory. joining me now is former republican congressman david jo jolley and former democratic congressman steve israel. david jolley, we know republican leaders have spoken to him about this, why bring up an issue that helps democrats take over the house? >> health care is a losing issue for republicans. it was last a winning issue in the 2010 cycle, 2012, maybe a little bit into 2014 when obamacare was still slightly net negative. but it's now popular with the american people. the only passions that this

stokes, if you will, is the legacy anti-obama element within trumpism. and those voters are passionate, they're against anything that obama was for. and so donald trump is speaking directly to them. what's intriguing though, andrea, is this. there is no legislative strategy. forget that there's even a plan. there is not even a legislative strategy to get anything through a democratic-controlled house and a republican-controlled senate. this is simply a judicial strategy where they are banking on john roberts switching his vote and ultimately killing president obama's signature health care achievement. that in itself should say something. republicans and donald trump are simply against the health care law as we know it. there is no plan. they're going to fight this in court but they have no ability to replace it even if they had a plan. >> and in fact, another federal judge just overnight pushed back against their judicial efforts to do an end run, saying that it was an end run around this.

steve israel, how does this work for them? >> well, i agree with david. not only is there no legislative plan. there is a very questionable political strategy here, andrea. i spoke with several of david's and my former colleagues on the republican side this morning, and they are perplexed and many of them annoyed. they thought this week was going to be on mueller. instead they feel like they're on defense on the affordable he to prosecute democrats as socialist. now they're worried about go into a new election where they're going to be defending against trying to take insurance away for preexisting conditions. here's the bottom line. i know david knows this as well. you never fight a campaign strategy on your opponent's high ground. democrats believe that their high ground is the affordable care act. it's how they believe they won the midterm election. kaiser poll today says that 50% of americans support obamacare, 40% have unfavorable views.

the democratic view is, bring it on, we're willing to fight this fight. they think it helps them and they also believe that president trump stepped on his own narrative this week by suddenly injecting this into the debate. >> and you know who also agrees with both of you is mitch mcconnell, because he told politico, i look forward to seeing what the president's proposing, regarding replacing obamacare, and what he can work out with the speaker. end of story, right? david jolly, let's also talk about special olympics, because once again, the president has thrown a cabinet secretary under the bus as he did with his tweet last week on north korea, with steve mnuchin, having done just done the sanctions, and he reversed the sanctions. now again he comes out and says special olympics will be fully funded and that he agreed with it all along and he disagrees with his own administration. but this is the third year they have proposed -- the third budget that they've proposed zeroing it out. >> and so you ask questions, have they done this deliberately

or are they really, as i said, is it just a new level of stupid. because in the budget process each year, presidents of both parties typically will zero out major programs where they can see some cost savings, knowing congress will add it back. but we're talking typically about major weapons systems within the department of defense, billion-dollar programs. here we're talking about an $18 million cut that hits very hard at very important populations. and the reality is there was no reason to do it. it's not even a rounding number in the federal budget process. it does continue to form this narrative, though, that republicans going into 2020 are against very important programs, be it health care, special olympics, be it aid in puerto rico, they are against programs that help people. democrats are rightly positioned as a party that wants to help those populations. >> thanks to you both. david jolly, congratulations on your new baby this week. >> thank you very much. >> thank you for coming in. and lots of luck with your expanding family. steve israel, thanks to you.

and make sure to tune in to "all in" tonight when chris hayes hosts a special event with representative alexandria ocasio-cortez. they are going to talk about the green new deal and her ideas for gaining support for the measure in congress. watch tonight, 8:00 eastern only on msnbc. coming up next, venezuela. calling for a final push to oust nicolas maduro, a live report from caracas, next. do your asthma symptoms ever hold you back? about 50% of people with severe asthma have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells. fasenra is an add-on injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. fasenra is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra is proven to help prevent severe asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can lower oral steroid use.

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the ongoing crisis in venezuela is coming to a head. duelling rallies are scheduled between president maduro and option leader guaido this weekend. guaido, who has the support of the u.s. and much of the international community, is leading a push to oust maduro amid ongoing blackouts. this woman says her father died during one of those blackouts and that the government is simply broken. >> shameful, because i work. i deserve better. i deserve better. right now i don't know if i have to go or if it's better if i

wait a little bit more. i don't know what to do. i really don't know what to do. >> millions have already left. joining us now, nbc's gube gutierrez in caracas and james stavridis, msnbc's security analyst. welcome, both. gabe, first to you, the latest. >> hi, andrea, good afternoon. we're here in caracas. the power has largely come back on today but we heard a few hours ago it went out again on the metro so people were trying to crowd onto buses. schools are closed today. there is escalating tension between the u.s. and russia. there were separate tweets from so secretary of state mike pompeo and national security adviser john bolton warning russia and president nicolas maduro not to sent troops or military equipment here.

this is a few days after russia sent military planes to venezuela. china is actually sending humanitarian aid to venezuela as well. the question right now is nicolas maduro's government on its last legs, as the u.s. and guaido's opposition group. there is caution for that assessment, maduro still enjoys for from several groups that backed hugo chavez and the socialist government here. there is a large question of whether there will be large scale defections from the military as the u.s. is hoping for. with regards to the power outages, this is a country that is used to power outages and foodag which has been happening for years. we spoke with that woman, angela ca carducci, who told us that her

father died because of lack of cancer ar this added dynamic of the escalating tension between the u.s. and russia, you mentioned these dueling rallies now scheduled for tomorrow, supporters of nicolas maduro as well as supporters of juan guaido, andrea. >> thanks so much to gabe gutierrez. admiral stavridis, the administration clearly thought there would be more defections, more quickly, from nicolas maduro. they're in a protracted stalemate. what are the options? >> this is starting to look like one that you and i remember, andrea, and that's ukraine. when ukraine flipped from the russian-installed thug viktor yanukovych. and you really feel a tipping point. gabe, who is doing terrific reporting down there, well-done, i think we are actually closer to a tipping point.

and i get all the cautions, but as the geopolitics of this unspools, the options for the u.s. remain where they have been, which is no military option. we're not going to send troops down there. we need to get this out of the channel of u.s. versus maduro and get it into the channel of the region, caribbean, south america, and the european union are all on board. we need to increase the diplomatic pressure, the economic sanctions. i think the administration is actually playing this one pretty well. >> and they have international support, other than russia, china, turkey. other than that -- and cuba, importantly, cuba has always been, in the days of chavez as well, cuba has been an important buttress. and that is one of the reasons why the president and bolton were so quick to go after maduro, because he is allied with cuba. >> he is indeed.

here is the good news from the u.s. perspective. russia is running out of money. they're trying to support assad in syria. they're trying to run a micro-republican micro republic in the ukraine in the southeast. they don't have the resources to invest in this. china doesn't have the proclivity. they'll send humanitarian aid. and maduro is running out of options. i agree with some of gabe's assessment, that it's not going to happen in the next ten minutes, but i do feel a tipping point coming, andrea. steady pressure by the u.s., don't lunge at the ball with a military action, and work closely, particularly with colombia, brazil. that's the way to go here. i think this one may turn out for the best, and that would be the departure of maduro and the formal installation followed by an election by guaido. >> a very tenuous situation indeed. thank you so much for your

experience and your perspective as well, and thanks to gabe gutierrez and our team in caracas. coming up next, back to three mile island. 40 years after one of the worst environmental disaster in american history and certainly the worst nuclear disaster, we speak to some of the residents who say they are still fearing the fear and dread. >> if something happens, you can't see it, you can't smell it. so you're running from something you can't see or smell. >> the radiation. >> correct. >> i just was wondering who they were studying, because it wasn't one that i was in because everybody here had something wrong with them. use everybody here had something wrong with them.

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40 years ago, just after the partial meltdown at three mile island's nuclear plant, people in small pennsylvania towns along the susquehanna river had another scare, word of a possible hydrogen bubble that could have turned this accident into a truly catastrophic event. it was one of the false alarms amidst confusing reports that, then and now, cast a cloud over the nuclear power industry, sparking years of investigations. >> reporter: because of the delays, the cleanup will cost $1 billion, twice as much as previously estimated. insurance will cover only one-third of that amount. the utility hopes to raise the rest by borrowing. because of share shaky financial status, that may be impossible

and the federal government may be asked to arrange a bailout. >> who was that person? i went back to three mile island where people say they're afraid of the health effects, despite the statements of nuclear reporters. they gathered before dawn at three mile island, marking the moment when one of two reactors went into partial meltdown, the worst nuclear accident in history, sparking health concerns that linger 40 years later. >> the cleanup will take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. >> it was just panic. it was fear. it was all these emotions wrapped up into one. >> thousands of pregnant women and families with toddlers like christine layman evacuated. two years later they got an all clear from reporters and the utility company. >> that was our playground growing up. and after the accident, that summer, water skied in those

very waters because they told us it was safe. >> do you believe they told you the truth? >> no. >> 40 years later, people here are still debating whether to keep the remaining tower or shut it down. >> people are known in this area to have an awful lot of cancer, all types of cancer. >> one recent study found a possible correlation between the accident and cancers. but most others didn't. ralph was the three mile island spokesman at the time of the accident. >> there wasn't enough radiation released to cause health effects. >> but some say the equipment didn't measure all the radiation. >> somewhere between five to ten times more radiation was released than the nuclear regulatory commission admits to. >> tonight the nuclear regulatory commission says the accident led to significant changes to enhance safety and that the accident had negligible effects on health. with cheaper natural gas, nuclear energy is no longer a bargain. now the state is deciding

whether to subsidize that last reactor or less it close. and the debate continues in pennsylvania and for the nuclear industry, around the nation. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tune in tonight for "the rachel maddow show," she'll be joined by chairman of the house intelligence committee congressman adam schiff, tonight at 9:00 eastern. and here is ali velshi for "velshi & ruhle." >> a great story and a blast from the past, great to see you reporting at three mile island. good to see you. >> have a good afternoon. my colleague stephanie ruhle is off today. let's get smarter. >> british lawmakers rejected prime minister theresa may's third brexit plan. >> the mood on the street is ugly. thousands of people behind me, shouting things like "betray"be

"a and "traitor" to those in parliament. >> a huge defeat for the prime minister. >> it should be a matter of profound regret to every member of this house that once again we've been unable to support leaving the european union in an orderly fashion. the implications of the house's decision are grave. >> there has to be an alternative found. if the then she must go. >> president trump has never been shy about talking about his wealth and status. >> i'm smarter than them. i went to the best schools they didn't. much more beautiful house. much moreea