redemption comes in. i've done something good for the things i did wrong. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good to be with you on this sunday morning. it is 6:00 in the east, 3:00 out west. here's what's happening. 20 proebz, 79 requests for documents, zero cooperation. new numbers in the president's fight with congress. plus, the two words washington can't agree on. >> we are now in a constitutional crisis. >> we're going to hold the aa.g. in contempt. >> i would define it as a constitutional crisis. >> constitutional crisis or constitutional -- >> i'm not even sure how you can say whoa have a constitutional

crisis. >> where the candidates stand on the issues. what you missed in this week's 20/20 sound check. and late night laughs when "snl" meets mtp. >> you bring it in, chuck, because if you think susan colli collins is' pushover. how the president and his allies are trying to break down the analysis. the administration is not complying with at least 79 requests for documentation or oth other. declining to disclose concealed communications between the president and vladimir putin, refusing to provide documents and and stopping testify over

adding a citizenship question to the census. one of those investigations may come to a head on tuesday. a federal judge is expected to rule on whether the president can quash a subpoena demanding presidential records. on friday a new subpoena deadline to release the president's tax returns. president trump claimed on twitter that 2016 voters did not care about his tax returns but a member of the house ways committee have this counterargument. >> the american people do care about whether this president has actually obeyed the law. that's what we're trying to find out, to ensure this president is being audited properly and he actually has filed his taxes, paid his fair share and that he has not had conflicts of interest and he's not benefitted from the tax law he just passed. as the legal battle may drag

out. one man -- >> my belief is this is all going to come down to justice roberts. he should believe in the constitutional court and the constitution and i hope he'll rule for congress otherwise he really risks yushd mining the credibility of the courts. on trade negotiations with china -- under a democrat president, the chinese will continue to, quote, rip off the u.s., this as the agriculture secretary and trump allies will hurt farmers who are crucial for the president's base. >> the tariff strategy is going to hurt certain industries pretty hard. president understands this and he's said to farmers, we'll give you a subsidy and we have to fix this problem. this is almost a generation and a half of having a problem with the chinese.

i don't want to hurt your business or your farming industry so we'll subsidize you while we're putting pain on china. let's break it down with dana lippman and mark edwards. welcome this morning. as we kick it off with you, daniel. how risky is a strategy for the white house as you project towards 2020? the president may be alienating those rural voters who will be hurt by tariffs on china. is there an underlying strategy there? >> everyone thought the tariffs were a negotiating tactic but it gets to have real world economic impact, that could be devasta devastating for the president in 2020. he's also worried about the impact on the stock market. if we have a global recession and the stock market takes a tumble, that's bad news in 2020

because he's been saying for years about how great a jobs president he is and he always points to the stock market when it's going up. he does did that in an interview with me and two other political reporters on friday but he won't be able to brag about that if you have a global trade war. >> it bursts the bubble when it comes to the which i. david, i want to focus on the 20 separate investigations. 79 requests for documents for information and requests. how is the stonewalling playing out as an electoral issue for the democrats and republicans? >> both sides feel like they have the political advantage here. for president trump and his supporters, they feel like they're standing up to the big, bad democrats as they see it in the house of representatives that are trying to usurp power. house democrats contend they have the upper hand, doing traditional congressional oversight, exercising their

duties. it comes down to what the courts say. we saw the upcoming decisions whether or not the trump administration has to hand over this administration, whether it's in the hands of the courts at this point. >> we'll find out the dead lines approaching next week. when it comes to administration efforts to block investigations as we just touched on right there, could be a powerful rallying cry for republicans. >> they'll say this is presidential harassment and democrats are focusing way too much on investigations and not actually policy ideas of their own. we've heard some talk about infrastructure and pelosi and schumer at the white house recent on a meeting with the trump pu don't.

their focus seems to be on holding this president accountable. that helps with their base but eventually they may need to try to kind of get the investigations off the headlines and move to more pocketbook issues. in 2019 they ran on health care and they won. that's an issue key in 2020 as well. >> makes you wonder how much more when it comes to fatigue. we have to focus on these investigations. the president reacting to that bombshell reporting where he cited done cited don mcgahn saying, mcgoah had a much better chance of being fired. when it comes to the president's base is that, all right, whatever, when it comes to that

sflint i think some depends on whether mr. mcgahn comes up to capitol hill to testify or not. if so, his base might view mcgahn as a boogie man, a turncoat on the president even though mr. mcgahn served the president locally for close to two years. he got through two supreme court justices, dozens of other federal judicial nomineeings. that's what the base wanted a lot. so, he might be viewed as expendable. i think it really matters whether or not he's hauled in front a democratic congressional committee and made to testify publicly. >> or the president keeps tweeting, maybe irritating mcgahn even more saying, i will, i will step up and testify. i want you to listen here to what the members -- one member of the ways and means committee said they're willing to do when it comes to this battle over the president's tax returns and if that plays out in courts. take a listen. >> we should consider the power of inherent contempt, an old

doctrine that all lous congress itself to issue a summons, an arrest warrant to an official and demand they appear at a congressional hearing, be subject to fines, to jail time. i think we ought to explore contracting with aerial congressional institutions, provide additional support so the white house will get the message we're serious. >> serious, now rear talking arrests, jail. daniel, you cover congress closely. what's a scenario you envision that could happen at all when you think about the logistics that have to go along with it. >> people said there's a jail in the basement of congress. we have not seen that used very frequently, if it still exists. so, this is going to be, you know, a huge fight because democrats are eventually going to get tired of a trump

administration stonewaulg on these document requests they view as legitimate. and the trump administration says, oh, they are handing over documents appropriately but it doesn't seem they are cooperating at all. that might be an untenable position. if they keep losing in court, the trump administration might change their tune. if democrats have some difficulty in the courts, then they may try to rely on these kind of extra judicial, you know, techniques to get the trump administration in line. but i don't -- i can't see secretary mnuchin behind bars any time soon. >> especially with these calls to get the tax returns out there, the deadline approaching. david, you have the president's arlg ument claiming on twitter that the voters of 2016 didn't ka irabout his tax returns. attempts to force their release would help him win a second

election. >> i think there is truth to the seconds part, in the 2016 campaign, now president trump broke from tradition for presidential nominees for the last 40 years or so released nothing about his tax information and he still won. however, that's different from the rule of law. this is not a political campaign. this is something that democratic majority in the house has every right to see and they're trying to get their hands on. whether or not it's going to help or hurt for 2020, i doubt it makes much difference with president trump. it's going to be more of the same. >> we'll continue our conversation a little later in the consideration. t thanks for kicking us off. we'll round out the hour with you. >> thank you. now to the latest on the president's border wall.

acting defense secretary patrick shanahan is at the u.s./mexico border. his day comes after the pentagon sparked criticism by diverting funds from numerous defense projects to defense of the barrier. matthew bradley jioins us. >> reporter: acting secretary yesterday assured those at the border that defense budget, and he didn't tell us how long those 5,000 soldiers would stay there. acting defense secretary, patrick shanahan met officials in mcallen, texas, after he diverted $1.5 billion towards barriers, including $600 million from afghanistan. the president has pushed pentagon for more funding and

forces at southern frontier after democrats stonewalled his campaign promise. >> we will build a great wall along the southern border. >> reporter: shanahan told reporters, this is the last time he'll divert pentagon money to the border. >> we have very smart people at the department and we found ways to do this without having any impact on readiness. >> reporter: the white house said it wants to nominate shanahan as permanent secretary but the funding move has democratic leaders in congress fuming over why they weren't consulted and speculating shanahan is putting politics ahead of the troops. dick durbin tweeted, dismayed that the department has chosen to prioritize the kooem promise. >> they engaged in conflicts around the world. it's trying to rebuild in a inco number of different ways. >> reporter: a strategy

democrats say prioritizes politics. now, the white house hasn't pushed ahead with their plans to normally norm nature shanahan but this dispute over border wall funding is unlikely to help his cause with democrats. >> thank you. where's the truth and where are the consequences. the legal implications of trying to block don mcgahn from testifying before congress. with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay? even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers,

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. don mcgahn is a really good guy. been with me a long time. privately before me. a lot of affection for don. but he's done an excellent job. >> anything he said to the muellers? >> not at all. no, i don't have to be aware. we have -- we do everything straight. we do everything by the book and don was an excellent guy. >> that was last year. in a new tweet the president claiming he was never a fan of former white house counsel don mcgahn who had a much better chance of being fired than mueller. the wa"the wall street journal" publicly his requests to fire mcgahn were not legal. katie phang, thank you for be

with us. could these attacks backfire on the president you have- >> the mueller investigation, as we know, really drove into 30-plus hours of testimony from the don mcgahn when he was enter vowed by the mueller team. if you're donald trump, let's be logical about this, are you really wanting to alienate the person who already gave testimony and about to give testimony to congress? why would you call him a liar? by doing that i am of the belief you have waived, if it's not been waived before if you never objected to mcgahn sitting down with mueller for 30 years, you waived executive privilege? when you have executive privilege with an attorney with counsel -- remember, he was white house counsel, if someone says you committed malpractice

or you lied or misrepresenting something, that privilege is gone. usually the privilege is only held by somebody like the client. in this case, if you call him a liar, you needs to redeem himself. >> you're basically saying when it comes to client/attorney privilege, out the window because of those comments made right there? >> that's right. he keeps saying it. trump continues to impugn the veracity of don mcgahn. he should have the right to defend himself and say, i told the truth. >> if mcgahn can comply with the subpoena when it comes to subattacks? >> mcgahn is no longer an employee of the white house. if he was still working there, he would be worried about job security. he's now private citizen 101. don mcgahn is ckoufefi number

two. when you have donald trump saying mcgahn is a liar and he never ordered mcgahn to get rid of robert mueller, thereby obstructing an investigation, he created a serious he said/he said battle that needs to be played out in court or congress. >> following the refusal, can the white house commitment to block mcgahn from testifying before congress, ordering him not ko comply with his subpoena, in that case could it be considered witness tampering? >> i'm want trying to be melodramtic or alarmist about it. if you're trying to affect the outcome of someone testify, any of those that donald trump has been seek rektly been channelling information to, but dorn mcgahn is being savvy. he's saying, you know whattic,

i'm going to let this battle play out between the house and the white house. maybe he ends up being collateral damage. we haven't heard publicly from mcgahn. nope. >> when it comes to the subpoenas, you have the stonewalling "the washington post" writing, if the president is able to run out his block to deny all subpoenas, the investigation itself. >> we just literally this past week had a resolution to the operation fast and furious contempt of then-attorney general eric holder. that legal battle that started in 2012, that then house voted to hold eric holder in contempt, seven years later. the wheels of justice move slowly. we're not stupid. the american public isn't

stupid. it doesn't take a law degree to know when someone is trying to be an obstructionist. when you're trying to block 79 subpoenas, people will run to the ballot box in 2020 and say, i would want someone a lot more honest with me, legally speaking as well, than someone trying to hide behind the court system. >> more dead lines to come next week. we'll be talking to you again about it. thank you. now to the president's latest take on his 2020 challengers and the new nickname for one of them. i'll speak with a reporter who just interviewed the president later. late night lives with sml spoofing the "meet the press" and chuck todd poses several scenarios before his panel to see if there's anything the president can do to lose heir support. >> scenario one, robert mueller testifies before congress and says he believes trump committed obstruction of justice.

do you still support him? >> well, we need a leader that's willing to do what he's got to do to win. >> that's absolutely right. >> any sense trump cluded with russians? >> well, i'd have to write a strongly worded email and send it straight to my draft folder. r with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. we're the tenney's and we're usaa members for life. call usaa to start saving on insurance today. and we're usaa members for life.

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go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. now to this morning's headlines. the u.s. coast guard is at the site of a toxic chemical spill in houston. a barge nearly sliced in half when it complied collided with a tanker friday. thousands of barrels of chemical used in gasoline spilled into the houston channel. severe weather is being blamed for a freight train derailment in mississippi. more than 20 cars were sent scattered over washed out tracks saturday in pearl county. no one was hurt. the emergency crews say they carried out several high-water rescues. peggy lipton has died of cancer.

the emmy nominated and golden globe winner was born in new york, with two children, 72 years old. another effort by south korea to de-escalate tensions over north koreans weapons testing, challenging the term ballistic missiles. earlier today in china, a show of unity among koreas. a south korean violinist and north korean sopranoist with the china orchestra. bill kneneely joins us from sou korea. what is south korea hoping to accomplish? >> reporter: good morning. words do matter. here's an example. under ooun security council resolutions, north korea is banned from firing ballistic missiles.

it's not banned from firing crews missi cruise missiles. a ballistic missile comes up in the air and comes down. a cruise missile flies at low altitude and can change direction. all this matters because what south korea is trying to do is quibble over words in order to cut north korea some slack and to downplay the importance of these missile tests. for example, when the first missiles were fired last saturday, south korea said, simply, they were unidentified projectiles. and then on thursday the latest round of tests, the u.s. said they ballistic, south korea said, no, they're based on a russian cruise missile design. in other words, north korea shouldn't have fired them but they aren't really doing anything really, really bad. this is trying to downplay the

tests. donald trump was doing it as well. he was saying standard missiles, short-range, he's not worried. it doesn't break his trust in kim as far as he's concerned. so, both sides trying to downplay these tests. the reality is they were short-range missile tests. they are there to send a message from kim. and the threat from kim remains just as the sanctions on north korea remains. it's a year since that extraordinary and symbolic meeting between kim jong-un and president moon at the dmz, a meeting full of hope, full of symbolism. since then not much has changed. yes, there have been summits and talks but the sanctions remain and that's something playing on minds here in seoul and in washington. skepticism about the progress of these talks really is growing.

>> i want to ask you about north korea and that cargo ship seized bth by the united states that arrived in samoa. do we have any idea why it took a year for the united states to announce it seized the vessel and where do we go from sneer. >> reporter: the timeline is curious. it was seized in april of last year. in july the u.s. applied or filed for a seizure order. but that seems only to have come through this year. and the ship left indonesia last month and has just arrived in american samoa where it will be inspected by department of justice and coast guard officials. it was also, it has to be said, in theed in indonesia. the timeline is odd but it left indonesia before this round of new tests. it did, of course, add an element of new tension to all of this because it's the first time the u.s. has seized a north korean vessel but, look, there

are tensions way beyond this ship. the tension is in the lack of progress in the talks. on that, mike pompeo, secretary of state, will be heading very soon to moscow where he'll be having talks with vladimir putin. the talks when u.s./russian relations and on the agenda la be north korea. >> bill neely from seoul, south carolina. a widening political divide as tensions ratchet up in washington. the president and democrats clashing on core issues. >> the special counsel's finding is clear, case closed. >> just as a matter of observation, that's just not a fact. the case is not closed. >> we've talked for a long time. about approaching a constitutional crisis. we are now in it. we are now in a constitutional crisis. >> i agree but in a different way. chairman nadler has created the constitutional crisis. >> joining me now is progress

sif commentator rashad richie and justin safy. let's jump into this. we're hearing from the words of chairman nadler and everyone else. what's the reality of it here, have we reached a crisis or is it rhetoric? >> you have a constitutional crisis. please understand, there are three co-equal, emphasis on co-equal, branches of government. legislative, judicial and executive. when one decides not to respect the authority of the authority, you have an issue. william barr is a federal employee. for him to decide to thumb his nose at an actual congressional subpoena is a big deal. he could technically could be arrested. booef been here in 1927 when an ohio bank president decided to

ignore, to completely ignore, a senate subpoena. what happened? they ordered the sergeant-of-arms to lock him up. the attorney general at the time was his brother. this created a constitutional crisis and the courts upheld the senate had the authority to enforce a subpoena through arrest. >> let me jump in and talk about this. you have this idea being floated around, congressman lloyd doggette, you brought up arrest, and we'll talk about it on the the other end. >> we should consider inherent contempt, an old doctrine that allows senate itself to issue a summons, arrest warrant, demand they appear at hearing, subject to jail time. i think we should contract with

institutions, provide protection for sergeant-in-arms so the white house understands we're serious. >> realistic, is that something we can see happening, especially when you issues and policies they say they want to see, especially leading up to 2020? >> i think that's crazy talk. any talk of putting people there the administration in jail. you know, eric holder, the attorney general for barack obama was held in contempt of congress. no one talked about holding eric holder, barack obama's attorney general, in jail. i think the democrats know the american people do not support impeachment. every poll shows that. at the same time, the radical progress sif base of the democratic party, they want impeachment and they're demanding it. the democrats are in a position because you've heard nancy pelosi go down that road so they're issuing an unprecedented

number of subpoenas. i think they run a risk with the american people thinking they're more interested and investigating and not legislating. >> when it comes to that, you know, we have nancy pelosi there, and i also want to play a little bit of what she had to say, rashad, because she's calling on -- at first, remember, weeks ago shell said impeaching donald trump isn't worth it. now we have her saying this. let's listen to nancy pelosi. >> trump is goading us to impeach him. every single day he's taunting, taunting, taunting because he knows it would be very divisive in the country but he doesn't care. just wants to solidify his base. >> all right. let's go to you, rashad. when you hear something like that, any truth to that and knowing when it comes to right now, these subpoenas, these deadlines that are coming and going and here's where we stand? >> yeah, sounds like the president is trying the speaker's patience when it treelts this.

it's clear she does not want an impeachment battle and here's the truth of the matter. you can't remove the president of the united states anyway. you can impeach him but you need two-thirds of the senate vote to the get to that point. impeachment, period, is an unpopular political process. that would not be the political route to go during a presidential cycle. a lot of folks don't care about the impeachment as they care about things like the economy, health care and also our border security. so, these are issues that will probably remain at the forefront of the presidential candidate's agen agenda. >> right now we're talking about words from the sound we played before we introduced you here. constitutional crisis. we're hearing it over and over again. what does that look like? many say it needs to show chaos but many say this is a level of chaos we're seeing here when it comes to where we are now. how does that look, especially when you compare it to a

government shutdown. wouldn't we see something more tangible when it comes to democrats or republicans wanting to do something in this constitutional crisis if we are in one? >> right. i agree with rashad's statement earlier. i like the term constitutional confrontation, not crisis. i believe that term is being thrown around, is overused. i do not believe we're in a constitutional crisis. look, the framers of our constitution knew the difference branches would be pushing and pulling. that's what goes on in every single administration and that's not new. what is new is the unprecedented scale of investigation of subpoena of so-called oversight that the democrats in congress are trying to do to this president. i think the. the is doing what he thinks the right thing is to do, is to protect the presidency. because if this happens now, it's going to happen to the next president, whether it's a republican or democrat, and the next president and the next

president. we need to allow the president to be able to do his job. and to have congress have an appropriate level of oversight. i think democrats in congress are overplaying their hand. >> let me ask this. you have a report in "the washington post" as they say the trump administration has failed to comply with 79 requests with documents for requests. doesn't that bother republicans? if you look at that number alone, wouldn't that throw a blip and say, one or two, maybe cave a little, or a lot? >> well, i look at it as, 79 requests? what -- i would like to see a list of all the 79 requests. i'd like to see whether they're spending as much -- the democrats in the house are spending as much time legislating and addressing issues like immigration, like health care, like the economy and things like that that the american people care about or are they just spending all their

time issuing 79 requests that xhoo knows whether they're worth while or not. >> rashad, when it comes to constitutional crisis, quickly, are dems missing the mark on this, when it comes to action? >> they're not missing the mark. they're job under article 1, section 1 of the constitution is to provide oversight. that's what they're doing. they should investigate and legislate at the same time. >> to both of you, thank you for the time. the issue on impeaching president trump is resonating on the campaign trail. want to remind you msnbc is live every saturday and sunday at 6:00 eastern. hmm. exactly.

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the 2020 democratic field shows a huge split between joe biden and everyone else. a couple weeks after the former vice president in the race, they have biden at 41%. second in line is bern is sanders with 14%. and the rest of the field trailing behind. we're bringing you with what the candidates have been saying on the trail in this week's sound check 2020. >> we are talking about such a fundamental issue which is whether or not the president of the united states obstructed justice. i think it's -- it's something we need to figure out. >> we took an oath not to try to

protect donald trump. we took an oath to protect the -- and serve the constitution of the united states of america. and the way we do that is we begin impeachment proceedings now against this president. >> i think he made it pretty clear he deserves impeachment. >> i think it would be perfectly reasonable for congress to open up those proceedings. it's clear that bob mueller in his report left that in the hands of congress. >> my administration will impose an immediate moratorium on any future pension cuts to multi-employer pension plans. >> we need to stand up to companies that talk about having progressive values. but are actively trying to stifle their workers by underpaying them. >> i think we need an expansion of programs. i think we need the ability to refinance student debt. i think we need to act on when

your debt is unforgiven, the way that's taxed. >> i love this idea of debt-free college as part of my platform, but, damn it, most americans don't go to college. we have to have apprenticeship programs that give every child a pathway to 21st century jobs. >> the root of the current health care system is that it is not designed to provide quality care to all people. the priorities are distorted, massive amounts of bureaucracy, massive amounts of profit-taking and that system has got to change. >> what i believe we should do is have a robust public option. mine is called ed care x, that would allow every american to opt into a plan administered by medicare if that's what they want. >> climate change is here. it is happening to us. those same scientists tell us on this current trajectory the destruction and devastation and death will become exponentially

worse. >> i fundamentally believe this is our last chance to save our grandchildren from this monster and everyone else's grandchildren for that matter. >> i will not speak ill of any of the democratic kaecandidates. i will not do it. the last thing the democratic party needs now is to be a fight among democrats that gets into something inconceivable. >> cory booker and mike at bennett are in illinois. the president wants to unleash his attorney general on joe biden. is that exactly what a dictator would do? that's next.

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do not change or stop your asthma medicine without talking to your doctor. help heal your skin from within. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. is. has the president or anyone at the white house ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? yes or no, please, sir. >> the president or anybody else. >> seems you'd remember something like that and be able to tell us. >> yeah. but i'm trying to grapple with the word suggest. they have not asked me to open an investigation. >> that's attorney general william barr earlier this month, under oath.

meanwhile, in a new interview, the president offers insight what he thinks might be appropriate to ask the a.g. the president telling politico a discussion with the a.g. about possibly launching an investigation into his potential 2020 opponent, joe biden, quote, would be an appropriate thing to do. daniel witman and david mark with "the washington examiner." david, you were one of the politico journalists who interviewed the president. do you know why it would be appropriate for him to have a discussion with a.g. barr from a political opponent? >> there's not many white house advisers who are telling him, this is a good idea to do. this respects the power of the three branchs of government. and so, we didn't really delve into why he thought -- he thought it would be a big issue, a big situation, because joe biden's son, hunter biden, has

financial ties to a ukrainian energy company. and joe biden had asked -- had pressured a prosecutor in ukraine to step down. and so, it's a convoluted story. there's no evidence that joe biden did anything wrong. and the more serious issue comes from the fact that u.s. presidents are not supposed to ask the justice department to launch investigations into their political opponents, given that he told us that joe biden is the front-runner he will face in 2020. >> seems like something a dictator will do. a u.s. president asking that kind of investigation. >> this has been the president's approach for some time now. basically investigate the investigators. it's an old tactic of defense attorneys. it's not something we usually see with the president of the united states. i think it's really dangerous in some ways because it's

undermining confidence in our federal law enforcement agencies. anytime they investigate anything, no matter how legitimate, there's going to be questions raised. i think that was the point of trump and his legal team. i want to ask you, that joe biden's 2020 run compared him with his own 2016 campaign. is it fair to compare the combines? >> it's so early to tell because i won't be shocked if joe biden doesn't get the nomination. he viewed it as, once he got in the race in 2015, he was able to be the top contender at the top of the polls.

and so far, joe biden has had that for a couple weeks. that's his frame of reference. if he uviews it as the 2016 primary, the conclusion might be that joe biden wins 2020. i don't know if the president took that extra step. >> what struck you the most about that interview? >> he gave pete buttigieg alfred e. neumann. he didn't know of the "mad" magazine character. there's some resemblance. >> some may say. >> thank you for sticking around. up next, the trump administration's efforts to stymie more than 20 investigations on capitol hill. .

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good to be with you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's 7:00 out east. and 4:00 in the west. game over over or constitutional crisis? washington tries to find solid ground while the president blocks more than a dozen democratic probes. and why the president just