use that as an opportunity for me to kind of slide in some great stories about my mom and kind of keep her alive. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm phillip mena. it's 6:00 in the east, 3:00 in the west. here's what's happening. new deadline. sanctuary city. the president finding resistance to his idea inside the white house. why his legal team isn't ready to give the green light just yet. document drop. robert mueller's full report could go public as early as tomorrow and some democrats are bracing for a few surprises. first, developing this hour, the white house and the president defending a controversial possible plan to bust apprehended immigrants to

so-called sanctuary cities. days ago democrats said the proposal is illegal. president trump claimed to twitter last night he has, quote, the absolute legal right to transfer immigrants to cities that don't agree with his white house policy. democrats say, not so fast. >> we're going through the process. we're reviewing everything we can do lawfully. the fact is, we release them already into certain communities. what's the difference in releasing them a little further into sanctuary cities in we're trying to figure out if we can do that legally. they shouldn't say this is retribution illegally. they should say this is an olive bran branch. >> it's illegal. it's immoral. it's unethical. it's sophomoric, it's petulent

and par for the course. >> this is going to cost a lot of money shifting these people all over the united states. it reallyle is a crazy idea. >> this notion that he can somehow scare us away from what is a moral position on this issue, i think, really speaks to his inability to recognize his strength that so many leaders have across this country. >> the president also decrying his fake news reporting by cnn and "the new york times" that he told the acting homeland chief to close the border to immigrants and asylum seekers. three officials tell cnn that the president agreed to pardon kevin mcaleenan if he faced any legal problems for closing the border. steve mnuchin responding to the house ways and means committee setting that april 23rd deadline for the irs to release six years

of the president's tax returns. let's go live now to the white house and nbc's hans nichols. what did mnuchin say and where do we go from here? >> reporter: mnuchin says that april 23 deadline is entirely arbitrary. what you're starting to see is a concerted effort across the government on how they're going to push back against this challenge. let me read you a little bit of what mnuchin is saying, an indication really they want to take their time. he's saying, look, the implications of this is way beyond, in my mind, a congressional oversight issue and a precedent issue. the issue is i feel a responsibility that we get this right and that the irs doesn't become undermined like the nixon administration. he's saying the process needs to run its course. the democrats have refuted that argument in the past. they sent out a separate letter yesterday demanding those tax

returns. that's a hard deadline, april 23rd. >> before i let you go, any idea how the white house is preparing for the release of the mueller report, which is likely tuesday? >> reporter: officially they're saying they're not that concerned. rudy giuliani saying he could do a speed read on this. the connotation is there will be something negative in there. whether that clouds over what we think to be the brunt of it, and that is, no collusion and no case for obstruction of justice, which you can expect to hear the white house repeat quite a bit. phillip? >> nbc correspondent hans nichols reporting live from the white house this morning for us. thank you. joining me now, david mark, deputy news editor with the washington examiner and daniel lipman. thank you for joining me. let's start the release of the mueller report. you write some trump allies say

the white house is in for a rude awakenings. >> they say in 400 pages there's bound to be something that's embarrassing or reflecting negatively on the president. you could see elements about his constant attacks on the justice department, on -- if he tried to interfere with the investigation at all. you know, their findings on james comey and his firing, you know, the fact that trump basically tried to cover up the fact that he told lester holt that this was all about russia and then he later backtracked when he kind of realized he was too candid. they say that this is going to dominate the media and become a story unto itself. and will cloud the no obstruction, no collusion case they're trying to make. >> at a minimum, what do you think the redacted report will show. what do you expect the report to include that we might not have

heard before? >> we're going to see some outlines directly of the trump campaign's interaction with russian elements. we've known some of this so far, the meeting in trump tower between don jr., various russian agents, campaign manager, et cetera. we might hear many more of those specifics. of course, this is in the eye of the beholder to critics of the president. they see this essentially as collusion. something that should not take place in a presidential campaign. republicans, defenders of the president, are going to say, hey, this is old news. we know about this. what's the big deal? so, the question for both, the challenge for both sides, will be going beyond the narrative that already exists. >> daniel, you and your colleagues also write about how the. the's legal team is preparing for this release. how are they getting ready? >> so, there's going to be a number of surrogates who are prepared to go on the air to challenge the report and stand

by the president. if you talk to people like rudy giuliani, he seems like he hasn't given this much thought. you know, they can just speed read through it and find not much there. we talked to trump legal adviser on vacation in palm springs. he said, he hasn't given much thought to it. they're trying say while they're shrugging it off, nothing new to see here, this is something we've all known about since the barr report. remember, that reporting a couple weeks ago from the mueller team that the barr report had understated what they actually found. so, it will be interesting to see if barr gets butter embarrassed if there's much more to this that should have been in that summary he wrote. >> essentially a pr campaign waged. >> setting up a war room. they're going to push back and

say that the media should not overhype this. but the fact there's a 400-page report into the president's conduct and all those links with russia, that is not something that usually happens for any president. >> let's talk about the president targeting ilhan omar. his pin on burning trade towers has been up for 48 hours. dan crenshaw was the first to retweet a portion of a speech by omar and it's fueling this controversy. let's take a listen to what he said last zit they're trying to silence any kind of argument against them. why? because they don't actually have an argument to make. what they do is use identity to try to silence anyone else from saying anything. it's also sort of bigoted in itself because you're assuming that everybody of a certain skin color or gender should think a certain way. it's the content of your character that matters, it's the ideas you have. that's what we should be

debating here. >> david, how do you think that's playing with other republicans. you think they wish the president would not have just jumped in on this with both feet the way he did? >> i think a lot of republicans probably agree with congressman crenshaw. they feel there's a double standard. this is a legitimate line much criticism in their view that 9/11 is essentially a sacred event and right or wrong, congresswoman omar seems to be undercutting that or questioning the sacredness, the validity of that. maybe they wouldn't have come out with the same sort of video or tone the president would have. overall, i don't think you'll see a lot of push back from republicans on this. >> representative omar, for her part, released a new statement saying in part, quote, i did not run for congress to be silent. i did not run for congress to sit on the sidelines. i ran because i believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to congress. daniel, how do you think this controversy is playing out among

democrats as well as republicans in congress? >> well, i think as opposed to some of her comments on israel, which drew charges of anti-semitism, most democrats are happy to stand with omar on this. they say that it's important to recognize the anti-muslim bigotry that happened after 9/11. a lot of muslim americans did not feel comfortable going out in america because they would get targeted by people. and so they say she's not minimizing 9/11. if anything, president trump and republicans who are targeting her on politicizing 9/11 themselves. they say the era of republicans trying to bring american muslims into kind of a message of inclusion. remember, president bush went to ma muslim center on september 17th, six days after 9/11.

that's not something -- it's hard to see president trump going to a muslim community center saying, these are our brothers and sisters, we have to protect them, we shouldn't, you know, label all muslims as terrorists and, we shouldn't be afraid of millions of muslims just because a small group primarily from saudi arabia committed this atrocity. >> we haven't seen that yet. daniel and david, please stick with us. we want you back here in a bit. we'll talk about the battle to get the president's tax returns as well as the race for 2020. to weather now. deadly storms moving through the southeast of the united states last night and brought baseball sized hail and tornadoes to the gulf state. two children in texas died when a tree fell on their car during a storm. >> what's the most devastating you've seen? >> just strip of homes on the other side of town over here completely gone, gone.

everything's gone. it's going to be a little difficult putting it back together but we'll do it. >> and a possible tornado touched down in vicksburg, mississippi, destroying parts of a gas station and injuring one person. the release of the mueller report may trigger a political storm, but what impact will it have on congressional investigations. that's next. >> tech: at safelite autoglass, we really pride ourselves on making it easy 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 ♪ hi, what's this social security alert? it's a free alert if we find your social security number on the dark web. good, cuz i'm a little worried about my information getting out. why's that? [bird speaking] my social is 8- 7- 5 dash okay, i see.

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millions of dollars looking for collusion. >> there's no collusion. >> there's nowhere in the barr report that says the president obstructed justice. there's no conspiracy, no collusion. >> i don't care about the mueller report. i've been totally exonerated. no collusion. no obstructions. >> if it's an honest report, it will say that. if it's not an honest report, it won't. >> just days before the redacted mueller report is expected to be released, there are new reactions from within the white house this morning as several aide says told politico, there is nothing that will come out about the president that will harm him criminally. this is a report everyone knows the outcome, no criminality, no obstruction and no collusion. joining us is danny. good morning. aides are climbing the details will at a minimum be embarrassing but does everybody already know the outcome of the report like they claim? inion.

>> perhaps the white house doth celebrate too much. here's why. yes, there was a conclusion that there was no true russia collusion. but on the obstruction prong, the white house has a number of reasons to be concerned. mostly because there was no exoneration when it came to obstruction. and there need not be a committed crime in order to initiate impeachment proceedings. that's a very important rule about impeachment. a crime is the neither a necessary nor sufficient ground for impeachment. a noncrime can be grounds and has been grounds for articles of impeachment. the obstruction side is the piece the white house should be most concerned about. arguably the conclusion with russia prong is no longer a major concern for the white house. >> how much power do you think congress is going to have to demand any of the redacted portions, make them become at least available for them to see? do they have any clear legal or

possibly legislative path to make that happen? >> they have the technical power to issue subpoenas but it's a little different than a judicial type subpoena because while congress has broad power to issue subpoenas to get documents and bring people to testify, congress also tries to work it out, to compromise with those subpoenaed and the documents that are sought because otherwise they could get into a lengthy court battle. nothing is more true than in this case with the president where they could argue, the president could argue there's some executive privilege or other special reasons why presidential documents and communications should not be subpoenaed before congress. solid argument but they'd rather work it out without issuing subpoenas. >> here's another interesting aspect that might suggest why the white house seems so confident. when asked in a hearing this past week whether the white house has seen the report, bill barr skirted the question. so, what do you think -- what does that suggest to you, what might that mean that trump lawyers saw this but not trump

himself? >> it's hard to say because it wouldn't be that surprising if the white house did have some form of access or eyes on the report. after all, if you adopt the unitary executive theory, the president is the king of the executive branch and the doj. it wouldn't be shocking. but it would tend to violate the spirit of the special counsel. >> what's your take on the white house's lack of concern here? does mueller's decision not to prosecute someone for a crime mean that conduct never happened, like the president claims, or could it be just that the evidence isn't sufficient in enough. >> the president is too confident about the release of the mueller report. yes, it's likely it will

conclude that no crime was committed. as i said before, that doesn't rule out impeachable offenses. an impeachment trial can be just as trial as a trial in regular federal court. in addition, there may be very embarrassing things in the report as well. maybe the white house doesn't care about that kind of -- that kind of issue, but they should because they don't want the president to get bloodied in the mueller report for anything personal that he may have done or em bartsing or something like that, especially with a re-election campaign right around the corner. >> another article. details congress nunez, and he claims doj officials committed crimes. barr didn't say whether he would take that meeting but he said he would interview. >> it's the age old question,

who watches the watchmen and the question could be, who watches those folks? that's exactly what's happening here. you have devin nunes now saying, we're looking at this original investigation. maybe there are investigations to be done of that investigation. and then, of course, as we go down the line, it becomes a questionable value to keep investigating the investigators. while devin nunes and congress can make referrals, as nunes has said they don't make the arrest. prosecutors, fbi agents make independent decisions independently of whatever congress provides them. >> nobody has seen this report, including congressman nunes but he suggests spying occurred saying james comey committed the ultimate spying by taking notes of president trump. how argument hold up?

how plausible is it that nunes has seen something that barr has not. >> a.g. barr used the word spy himself. perhaps surveillance would have been better. it's definitely a concern but at the same time, if nunes has had access, i doubt he has, but now that the report has gone from mueller team to barr, that's a lot of eyes and a lot of e-mail accounts arguably that have passed through if it's a pdf or something else. there are so many more eyes that have had access to the mueller report just by virtue of being sent from the mueller team to barr team. it's doubtful he's had access to the full report. >> less than 48 hours away from getting our own eyes on it. thank you for joining us. president trump's former chief strategist is going after

the pope. steve bannon is setting up shop in italy pushing a nationalist agenda to take down pope francis. bannon claims the pope is not doing enough about the sex abuse crisis in the catholic church. critics say bannon is weaponizing the crisis to target pope francis for his liberal views on homosexually, climate change and immigration. the pope last week kissing the feet of rival leaders of south sudan. richard engel sat down with the pope for a new report. >> reporter: the pope is a humble leader who reaches out to immigrants, gays and muslims. now the same person who helped elect president trump is going after the pope. >> the administrative apparatus of the church has to be inc. chaed. >> reporter: that's president trump's former campaign chairman, steve bannon, now on a new crusade. are you held confident after you

bring pretty significant political change to the united states, you can also impact change here? >> absolutely, no doubt. >> reporter: bannon's goal is to save the catholic church from the pope. who he says is failing to deal with decades of sexual abuse by priests. my probl my. >> moi problem with the pope today is this crisis on pedestrian peel ye pedophilia. >> reporter: but they say he's using the sex scandal to attack those you think is too liberal. >> if you're against migrants and refugees, then someone reaching out to them, that will upset. >> reporter: we drove outside rome where bannon is restoring this grand monastery. he plans to build an apartment for himself here and live here in this monastery of bannonism. he says this will be a school to teach judeo christian values to

a new generation of nationalist p populists. and bannon says the pope is the most powerful opponent to his plans. >> he's coming back and putting all the faults on the word on this populistnonsense. >> bannon's ambitions go far beyond the u.s. some people will see this will think, oh, no, the guy who put trump in the white house now has his sights set on the vatican. >> why would they think that? >> you're trying to bring change to this institution. >> this institution needs change. this institution is in decline. i think people will say that. >> this is just the beginning? >> this is the very beginning. this will take years. >> rich and engel, nbc news, rome. >> you can watch the full special "on assignment" with richard engel tonight at 9:00

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new reaction from treasury secretary in the battle over the president's tax returns. responding to a letter yesterday by the chairman of the ways and means committee, steven mnuchin says democrats' new deadline is arbitrary. mnuchin is not committing to release those returns by april 23rd and says he wants to prevent the irs from becoming weaponizing. back with us, david mark and daniel lippman with politico. how far do you think the white house is willing to go? >> all the way. there is no way president trump is going to allow his treasury secretary or any other official in his administration to release these documents. if that happens, it's going to be because of a court order. the president has made that clear. that's where things are headed.

it's just a matter of how long that might take to play out. >> yesterday my colleague, alex wi witt, asked ted lou whether the deadline of april 23rd was realistic. >> i would be very surprised if the white house complied with this request. they've been stonewalling every congressional request. there's a difference with this request. the law actually says the house ways and means chairman requests these tax returns, then the irs shall provide it. that's what the law says. we believe the courts will enforce the law. >> daniel, is this all about political maneuvering? it's likely this battle is going to tb decio be decided by the c anyway. >> of course, democrats and republicans think in terms of politics for everything they do. but they are also kind of fulfilling a campaign pledge made by many democrats last year in that they wanted to get

trump's tax returns and reveal if it's under foreign influence or if he's as rich as he says he is, or whether that was kind of like a fraud perpetrated on the american people, in their eyes. and i think if you're republicans, they are, you know, trying to protect the president's returns at all costs. and, you know, he's going to claim that he can't release the returns because he's under audit. you'll hear that all the time. but, in fact, there's nothing stopping him from releasing his returns because they are getting audited. and, in fact, every president and vice president, their returns are automatically audited. and trump has said they've been audited for many years. so, that's kind of an excuse he's going to try to use. >> it seems like he's fighting it harder than he is the release of the mueller report. let's pivot to the 2020 race. here's some highlights from cory booker yesterday.

>> in the words of dr. king, wait has almost meant never. you see, the president wants a race to the gutter and to fight us in the gutter. but to win, to win, we have to fight from higher ground in order to bring this country to higher ground. we don't have the privilege to wait for what fits into someone else' narrow view of what it means to be a progressive. >> david, do you think that message is going to help booker get ahead? he hasn't raised as much money as other democrats? >> that's in some ways a risky strategy. senator booker is talking about the -- when they go low, we go high strategy we heard from michelle obama and others the last time around. that did not work out so well against trump. part of the democratic base is champing at the bit to take on

trump firsthand, confrontationally, really go after him. senator booker is lagging on fund-raising. doesn't mean he can't come up with the money, but you need that money to pay for logistics, planes, computers, volunteers, other things. he needs to step it up if he wants to remain in that top tier of candidates. >> david and daniel, thank you for joining us this morning. new jersey has become the eighth state in this country to allow terminally ill patients to take their own lives. governor phil murphy on friday signed the medication and dying bill. to get a better understanding of death with dignity, you should check out an nbc news documentary on one als patient's strugg struggle. on msnbc.com. what the candidates had to

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of where the top candidates were 12 years ago when the front-runners brought in a lot more. that's because of the surge in small grassroots donors this time around. as more kaebds hit the trail, here's this week's sound check 2020. >> i want to bring people together to develop and invest in the workforce of tomorrow. i'm investing in the largest expansion in skills training and apprenticeships in america's history. >> in america, we need to protect working people and that includes passing and having a workers bill of rights. we need to ban so-called right to work laws. >> by 2030 there's going to be 30 million electric vehicles made somewhere. i want them manufactured in the united states. i want you guys taking care of the plants that make them. >> so, let's just talk about what it is, it's about greed. if we can start to define this debate about the creed and

corruption of the nra and the gun manufacturers that fund them, then we'll have clarity on this issue. >> weapons designed, engineered and sold to the united states military because they're very good at killing people very quickly and in great numbers should no longer be sold into our community. >> buy ban assault weapons. there's 15 million out there. if we should ban future manufacturer sales, you recognize why they're so dangerous. >> let me begin by being as clear as i can be. health care is a human right. not a privilege. >> i will fight for medicare for all, and i will start with lowering the age of medicare eligibility and giving americans a real public option. >> i'm for medicare for those who want it and we're developing

a public option now in my state. i believe we should have a rapid expansion of medicare. i believe that is a very tenable way. we have to the ability of everyone to have health care. >> you're not medicare for all. >> people like choice. that's so much of who we are. we want to have choices. i think the government has a bigger responsibility in that choice. >> well, i'm always for comprehensive immigration reform, but i didn't lead on the issue. when i became senator ten years ago, i decided this is something i need to lead on. >> this president wants us to believe that we have to choose between border security and compassion. i believe that our border is more secure than it's ever been. we have a secure border and we can maintain that security. we can be compassionate as well. >> you want to abolish the electoral college? >> yes. i think the electoral college needs to go. importantly, if this nation is going to make any major reforms in health care, in climate change, the filibuster needs to

go. it's archaic, its time has passed. it's time to have democracy again and movement. >> the constitutional framers were very wise. i will say as a democrat, it's very, very bad form to look like you're trying to change the rules when you've been losing by rules that everyone's been agreeing upon for decades. >> lots of 2020 candidates out on the trail today. among them, mayor pete buttigieg in south bend, indiana. and swalwell in california. in the next hour, the immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities. rst, le night laughs. "saturday night live" had some with this lockup prison scene featuring lori loughlin, michael avenatti and julian assange. enjoy. >> i paid 500 grand to a women's group coach to say my daughter

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in power, politics and paychecks, one day before the tax filing deadline, consider this, at least 60 companies last year paid nothing in federal taxes last year on $79 billion in profit. in fact, because of the new law, the companies collectively got a tax rebate of $4.3 billion. by the way, as of this morning, the u.s. national debt is a little more than $22.2 trillion. good sunday morning to you. new this morning, president trump escalating his immigration demands, capping on of a series

of tweets raging against democrats and the media on immigration. he tweeted, just out, the usa has the absolute legal right to have apprehended illegal immigrants transferred to sanctuary cities. we hereby demand that they be taken care of at the highest level, especially by the state of california. joining me now, radio talk show host rashad richie and ned ryan, former writer for president george w. bush. thank you for joining us this morning. rashad, i want to go to you first. how do you interpret that tweet? >> ridiculous. so, let's look at what trump is doing. he's actually using immigrants as political pawns in his presidential chess match against democrats. what's really unfortunate is that it seems as if the president cannot make a distinction between propaganda trump, which is great for campaigning, and president

trump, which should be great for people. sanctuary cities have 2.2% less crimes in these cities and a decreased unemployment rate, higher household median income. when you're looking at sanctuary cities, i think we need to look at what is the cause and effect relationship between law enforcement and actual community safety. what law enforcement is not tangled in these battles with i.c.e. or battles with immigration, they can protect the citizens they are sworn to serve. in addition to that, we have seen study after study produced that sanctuary cities have a higher coordination ratio with those who are undocumented, saying, hey, these are bad guys who are undocumented and getting rid of true criminals. >> ned, what did you think about his tweet? >> well, i think we just made the argument right there about why this isn't a bad idea. democrats have made the argument

sanctuary cities are the most humane, they want to welcome immigrants with open arms. the fact of the matter is -- jeh johnson was a voice of reason a couple days there is a crisis at the border. when you're having 2,000, 3,000, upwards of 4,000 illegals showing up every day, and the border patrol apprehended up to 3,000 in one day alone, this is a real crisis. i think the issue here that we have to get our arms around is how are we actually going to solve this problem? i know trump is using this as a negotiating tactic, let's be honest about it. at the same time i think we have a broken immigration system, especially as it centers around asylum claims. we know many people are coming for economic reasons, yet they're claiming oppressive fear, and they have to go somewhere because our laws will not allow us to deport them

quickly. democrats and republicans, because this is a crisis brought about by democrats and republicans, have to get their heads together, congress has to act. we ever to deal with this situation and fix our immigration system moving forward, and what trump is trying to do is force that conversation. >> rashad, do you think ned is right about that? >> not at all. when you say this is not a democratic or republican issue, remember it's president trump who has made this a very divisive tactic, and in all of his tweets and public propaganda, he contextualizes this problem as democrats versus republicans. they do need to come to the table. but right now the commander in chief is a republican president who has failed to build consensus as a way to move forward for this immigration problem. >> some of those who weighed cl

spoke to alex witt about this whole sanctuary plan, and here's what she had to say about that. >> it was floated by the white house multiple times and shot down repeatedly by the department of homeland security, which is why they're there, to make sure there is legal review. not only would it be legal because of the political motivations behind it, but it would be illegal because they would have to appropriate funds that weren't -- they would have to use funds that weren't appropriated for that purpose. >> if that is the case, ned, do you think this is just a messaging stunt by the president? >> it's obvious part of it is a negotiating tactic, phillip, by putting pressure on democrats to say if i need to do this, i will do this to force the conversation. trump wanting to do this, we don't know where this will actually go. this is a crisis. this isn't trump pushing this, the numbers are pushing this. the numbers are showing there is

a crisis, and at some point we have to wake up and say we're going to have a real legitimate, rational conversation about this. we're going to have a grand solution, and i think you'll find people on this side of the debate that say illegals who have been here for decades, maybe you have to say we'll give you a path for leadership, but this will never happen again. we'll secure our southern border. we'll never get our hands messy again and move from there. there are people who want to have a rational debate and i think we need to have it. >> but exacerbating this problem. we haven't seen the influx of immigrants trying to come over here seeking asylum with families. it's more than we've seen in a generation and it's trump who exacerbated the problem. >> no, i think it's our laws that exacerbated the problem.

when we have such massive loopholes in regard to asylum claims. when people go in front of a judge who make she's asylum claims, a majority of them are actually rejected because they aren't credible asylum claims. we have massive loopholes in our laws, trump has highlighted them. the messaging problems should be to these countries south of the border. you cannot come, you will not come, because when all is said and done, you're not really coming for credible asylum claims. i think we have a messaging problem and a legal problem with our laws. >> rashad, do you think it's the loopholes that cause the problem? >> absolutely not. phil, the loopholes have been in place with president trump and every president before him. so if it's just the law, why did we not see this issue before now? here's what's happening. when president trump gets on his propaganda box and he starts saying, we're going to close the border, we're going to do this, we're going to deny the law,

we're denying asylum claims. when he does that, it gets translated differently to these other countries. other countries are hearing, we need to get to america now, because when he does this, he's cutting everything off. you have the president of the united states creating the very crisis he says he's fighting. it's not the law. the law has been here before trump and you did not have this level of asylum seekers border. and by the way, if you have a problem with people going to court seeking legal asylum, change the law. that's what you do, you change the law. >> that's what i want. >> what's that? >> that's what i want. that's what i want. i want democrats and republicans in congress to actually take up this issue and deal with it because i do think we have a problem with our laws and they have refused to deal with it, both democrats and republicans. >> ned, real quick, how do you think the staffing shakeup at the dhs is going to play in to the immigration policies and the trump administration going forward? >> i think you're going to find somebody -- the names being

floated right now on ken cuccinelli, ken kovak. i think you'll find somebody that is a much more hard line on immigration when all is said and done, and trump has been throwing out names that i think a lot of his base would go, okay, that's more sympatico with how he ran the country des moines -- in 2017. >> how does the world respond to the mueller report? that's next.

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that wraps up this hour of "msnbc live." i'm phillip mena. it's now time for alex witt. there she is. >> i think the weather is going to be good out there, my friend. it is 7:00 here in the east, 4:00 a.m. out west. welcome, everyone, to "weekends with alex witt." new outrage to the tweet some said went too far and may have put a congresswoman in jeopardy. the deadline set in an effort to get the president's taxes. plus the transgender military ban is now in effect. what it means for the thousands serving in the military right now. >> they barred women of color, they barred women and