they expected more of me than i ever would have expected without them and her in my life. happy mothers' day, mom. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next saturday at 5:00 p.m. until then, to keep the conversation going, like us on facebook.com/politicsnation and follow us on twitt twitter @politicsnation. i'll hand things over to my colleague kendisgibson. >> hi al, we have to remember our mothers. thank you for that message. >> thank you. happy mothers' to all the mothers in your life. >> good evening everyone, i'm kengibson. president trump hits his white house counsel on twitter amidst

new reporting, the white house is stone walling. plus a cnbc exclusive, interviewed moments ago just into the headquarters with the secretary of state mike pompeo on his way to russia, here what he had to say about his predecessor. the identity divide, mayor pete buttigieg criticizing politics, ruffling feathers inside the democratic party. and talk about a dramatic landing. what happened when a jet touched down with no front landing gear. we are going to begin this hour with the president on a war path against one of his most trusted advisers. don mcgahn spent two years working side by side as chief counsel. now the president insisting he was never a big fan of his former white house lawyer. he also claims he was more likely to fire mcgahn than the special counsel robert mueller. all of this follows multiple

reports that mcgahn protested to protect trump from allegations. trump is prepauring to assert executive privilege to stop this from happening. >> the subpoena is ridiculous. >> there's no executive privilege over the hundred of thousands of documents regarding events that took place before donald trump was president. you can't have a privilege, an executive privilege, when you're not the executive. >> i'm seeing a failure to appreciate the importance of testifying before congress in a way that is straightforward and truthful. i think yes, it is fair to say that we are looking at a crisis not only of confidence but potentially a constitutional crisis. yeah. >> nobody disagrees. >> nbc's matt bradley is joining us from the white house. trump is looking at multiple deadlines coming up this week. >> that's right. two in particular. one on tuesday. that's going to be that decision in the trump lawsuit against the

house oversight committee and his own accounting firm. that's mazar usa. we're going to see if a federal judge is going to decide in favor of trump who is trying to block a subpoena that would release his accounting information. then on friday we're going to hear the results of a decision -- that's the deadline that the chairman of the house ways and means committee, representative richard neal gave to the treasury department to produce six years of trump's personal and business tax returns. so, you know, ken dis, we've been watching ever since this new house of representatives was seated back in january, been watching them launch these broad sides towards the white house and this week is going to be really interesting not just for the information that the decisions might reveal, but it's going to show us how the balance of power is tipped between the white house and this new democratic-led house of representatives, whether some of

these shots are going to land. >> no doubt it is ruffling feathers in the oval office at the white house. you get a sense which investigation the white house is fearing most? >> i don't know because there are 20 investigations. "the washington post" had an article this morning showing some 20 investigations, some 80 requests for documents, for interviews, further investigations. so, there's so many attacks coming at this white house all at the same time. most of them coming from this new house of representatives, from the democratic-led house of representatives who are all pushing and pushing and pushing for information. i think a lot of the strategy here is to rattle the white house and the legal affairs people involved, trying to keep everybody on their toes, and just sort of weakening them so they can pick and pick away. it's a little bit a death by a thousand cuts. >> it does look dizzying at all those investigations. matt bradley joining us from the white house.

you see them there, the white house trying to stone wall many of those probes. let's bring in your panel now. danny sevialis. welcome to all of you on this sunday. there's some reporting that there are currently 20 investigations you saw there into trump and his allies. so, the similar question to what i posed to matt bradley earlier, which one has the most political implications? >> well, so far all of them in terms of how the white house, trump himself, and his armada of lawyers are planning to handle these. they've taken the position as the president and his legal advisers have mapped out going back months now that they are going to, quote, give them hell. that's something the president was telling during easter weekend. that's something the president

w was. whether it's democratic investigations stemming from the mueller report, having to do with his taxes, having to do with the administration and the personal response to suffering and devastation in puerto rico, everything the white house and his administration and attorneys are going down the line, boom, boom, boom, essentially issuing to democrats you get nothing, not even the money for the bribe. >> all right. so, in the meantime we're going to come to you on all of this. trump is looking to use executive privilege to block the congressional request. adam schiff was asked about this a little bit earlier today. here's what he had to say. >> the trump administration has decided to say a blanket no. no to any kind of oversight whatsoever, no witnesses, documents, claim executive privilege over things it knows it has no basis over. it knows there's no executive

privilege over hundreds of thousands of documents that took place before donald trump was president. you can't have executive privilege when you're not the executive. so, they know that vast categories are inapplicable to the privilege here. so, they're just stone walling. >> you know what the real legal basis is here. is he right? >> we get the executive privilege language and law dating way back to the nixon decision which tells us that there is an executive privilege. it allows a presumption of privilege. but it is not absolute. and we're still fleshing out the contours today. we have the presidential communications privilege which requires communications with a president. so, adam schiff is correct when he observes anything that happened before the presidency, it would be hard to exert executive privilege. the deliberative process privilege may be broader than that. but at the same time, it does not shield wrong doing. so, if there's wrong doing afoot, that privilege will not apply. the reality is the executive privilege is not some absolute

blanket privilege that the president can assert to block whole swaths of documents and communications. >> it's a little bit more difficult with don mcgahn, correct. >> it is more difficult for a couple of different reasons, especially if for example don mcgahn wanted to testify because he has already left the white house. he's no long we are the white house. it becomes a little more difficult to assert the executive privilege. >> jeff, in the meantime i want you to weigh in on all this. trump has preoccupied this weekend with the obstruction of justice reports. mcgahn of course faces that may 21st deadline to testify. what are you hearing among the political circles on what will happen? >> was that for me? >> yes. >> sorry. an important point to make right now is the white house and president trump are just done with the investigations, and they're done in a time when the democrats are ramping up. so, there is a clash playing out

very, very publicly here between the two sides. and look at the political ramifications of that. you've got president trump going into 2020 looking towards his re-election campaign. you have democrats with a whole bunch of presidential candidates running. you've got elizabeth warren calling for impeachment and other party leaders such as nancy pelosi saying stay away from that. this is going to manifest itself in the clash over how to get the information the democrats still believe is required. at the end of the day, it may be the courts that make that decision. and when it goes into the legal system, it could take a while. >> you know the white house. you cover it every day. you're there. why is he obsessing so much about mcgahn? >> it's hard to answer that question. it's hard to say why the president obsesses about various things. aprntly mcgahn declined or through a lawyer declined to issue a statement saying he believed the president's actions did not rise to the level of obstruction. i do think it's worth pointing

out as a fact-checking mechanism to his tweet that mcgahn, though they may not have had a warm relationship, was very successful in bringing about president trump's policies in a lot of areas particularly with regard to the judiciary and bringing more conservative judges on to the judiciary. the last act he did before leaving the white house was to spearhead the confirmation process of brett kavanaugh. the president may say he's not a fan, but he was pleased with what he was doing until he left. >> kendis i have to say this. the president is concerned for the same reason he's concerned about michael cohen. he gets worried when his attorneys or former attorneys are called to testify. it appears from the mueller report that perhaps president trump didn't understand the nature of white house counsel versus personal attorney and the kind of privileges that would

attach. >> people worry about who will testify about them. i'm a criminal offense attorney so i have a bias here. nobody wants their former attorneys testifying about the services that they've provided. so, that part is understandable. but when you're the president and it's white house counsel, there are different rules than if regular folks go out and hire attorneys. >> i understand. i want to get you back into this conversation. what are you expecting from the very two big deadlines this week involving the democrat's request for trump's financial records and trump's tax returns? >> it's very simple like everything else president trump and his lawyers in and outside the white house have been conducting in recent weeks and months. they're just going to in legalese tell the democrats on capitol hill to get lost. this will go to legal action and a court stand off between trump and the democrats in congress. and any number of these could last for a long period of time,

even potentially years and therefore perhaps even years after the trump administration is over with. so, what the president and his allies are hoping, at least one possible avenue that would be beneficial for them is that these democratic subpoenas and onslaughts from capitol hill get tied up in the court system for years to come. >> they probably will. thanks to danny and jeff. thank you guys. still ahead, that cnbc exclusive interview with the secretary of state mike pompeo plus the identity question, major pete weighing on on whether democrats should weigh in. democrats should weigh in. e gas-x. your tossing and turning isn't restlessness, it's gas! gas-x relieves pressure, bloating and discomfort... fast! so we can all sleep easier tonight. alright, let's get going!

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mayor pete buttigieg in vegas and as it turns out what he says in vegas doesn't stay in vegas. "news week" had him coming out with a warning for his democrats. >> these divisive lines of thinking have come in my own party, when we're told we need to choose between supporting an auto worker or a trans woman of color without thinking that sometimes the awe tuto worker ie trans woman of color. >> josh was there in the room as he made the speech.

josh. >> pete buttigieg working last night to try to address the main vulnerability he has right now in the democratic primary which is the perception he benefits from white male privilege, having trouble attracting minorities to his campaign, and he's not the right messenger as a white male for this moment for democrats. pete buttigieg calling out people within his own party who he says are allowing that identity politics method to enter their thinking and trying to refrain the issue in a way that's aspiration nal as opposed to defensive. talking about how a black trans woman is excluded but how a white autoworker is also excluded if he's lost his job or she's lost her job. he's found a way to talk about this on the campaign trail in a way that will allow democrats to feel like supporting his campaign is not supporting

someone who is at the exclusion of other parts of the democratic party. >> thanks there in las vegas. josh, he was speaking in front of a largely white audience and saying he will be a president for all americans. but how exactly is this playing within the political world right now? i'm joining by democratic strategist howard franklin, republican strategist rita shaw, and alaina shore. i want to start with you. howard, pete buttigieg taking a risk perhaps calling out fellow democrats. what do you think is the strategy behind this? >> i wouldn't call it a risk considering where he's come from, a small town major who's been able to vault to the national stage. i think he's going to test a couple different approaches to get this right. i think the strategy makes sense. he's starting with a friendly room and friendly audience testing out this messaging. i expect he will do a lot more

of this until he starts to figure out whether or not this is gaining traction for him. >> it is gaining some traction. we're talking about it and it is getting traction within the democratic base there. i've got to say this. the president runs a risk of showing his age, comparing mayor pete to a character from the 1950s. who is alfred e. newman. i thought the president was referring to newman from "seinfeld." why would the president expose this generational gap with this 37-year-old candidate? >> well, there's really nothing better to say about that except he knows he can't attack pete's sexual orientation, so he's trying to stay in his lane and go with the safe bet which is attacking his looks. name calling is awful and i hate it has been normalized because of trump since he took office.

i want to talk about the point about identity politics here. we can't really have the conversation without acknowledging that donald trump has had tremendous success using identity politics towards his win. i know that right now we are in a moment where, you know, mayor pete is the beloved, but we have to talk about the fact that there are so many women in this field and they're not getting quite the coverage that pete and beto and joe get, right? so, there's this thing about women and how much do women matter? do we need more women at the decision-making tables at every level of government in our country. absolutely. we have dismal levels. >> i should point out while pete was on "time" a couple weeks ago, elizabeth warren is on the cover now. >> but look at amy klobuchar and kamala, they don't get the coverage the men get. i don't think the country is ready for a female executive, commander in chief.

we may be more ready for a guy man. that troubles me because i started a nonprofit last year to get to this very issue, the fact we have so few women at all levels of u.s. government. we need to have an open, honest conversation about that, why are we hearing more about the women? >> let me ask you to pick up on that right there because it is a very diverse field as rena pointed out. why is it that so many white men are at the top of the poll? >> you have to think about somebody like joe biden who has a commanding lead in the black electorate. they know him. they associate him with barack obama. making this just about identity politics misses a bit that it's also about the quote/unquote electability argument that goes beyond identity. to be sure elizabeth warren is

rising in the polls based on her strength as a campaigner and sexism is real. i think it would be a mistake to discount experience and familiarity and name recognition here. >> howard, i want to get your thought on this. as you know, president trump said in an interview that he thinks joe biden is going to steam roll his democratic rivals. so, who isn't registering, says the democratic rivals aren't registering. he talks about biden quite a bit. besides the fact that biden is at the top of most polls, why does he talk about biden so much? >> i think he talks about biden as much in part because very similar campaigns we saw from trump in 2016 and kind of the front runner campaign that we see joe biden running today. i think the argument he's making is an argument for inertia, that the front runner stays a front runner and even the in a crowded field where you need fewer total votes in order to be successful,

that someone like joe biden who has a great deal of familiarity, who's run for president now three times, has been on the national stage the last eight years enjoys a significant advantage. i think that's a real thing. i also want to say a little different than what i'm used to seeing from donald trump who i think is a world class troll, i think he was being earnest as he said he thought biden would win the gauntlet and ultimately become the nominee. i think he means that and isn't just saying it to meddle in the democratic primary process which is very strange for donald trump at this point in his presidency. >> let's talk about beto for a minute here. he was on the cover of ""vanity fair"" he was the it political boy two months ago. he's down near 2% and relaunching, i guess, his campaign tomorrow night on "the view." what happened here? >> well, my colleagues at the ap had a great report out on this

that basically talked about a quote/unquote quiet period that beto is trying to make this seem deliberate. when candidates reboot like this, it's never a deliberate choice. obviously he would love that voice to continue and be rising. he's made a bigger deal about getting behind the wheel and driving himself to campaign events. it looks like he's learning the error of his ways. he's realizing i can't just drive myself through iowa. i need national exposure. >> to bor a line from "friends" it wasn't he was away from us, he was saying "we were on a break." >> exactly. >> ken dis, that notion of likability is so archaic it goes back to the 20s wanting to have a drink with males in a room because that's how business was done then. americans still very much want to have a beer with their president and that goes to the

notion of a male is best suited for the job. i think that's what some of these candidates are getting smart about. they want to be likable. >> i'm willing to have a beer with any of them who will pick up the tab. it's all good. thank you guys so much. as we mentioned the secretary of state mike pompeo is heading to russia tonight. he will meet with officials at the embassy before meeting vladimir putin on tuesday. it is his first time in russia as secretary of state. hadley sat down with pompeo. pompeo had choice words about his predecessor. >> he did. i had a chance to catch up with him. we spent a lot of time talking about iran and i had the chance to ask the secretary of state how he feels about john kerry essentially going behind his back. listen in. >> it's inappropriate. it's not consistent with former

secretary of state ought to be doing. i'll leave it at that. suffice it to say, previous secretary of state should get off the stage. when their day is done, they ought to leave to their predecessors. >> and he shouldn't be prosecuted? >> i'll leave to the department of justice to deal with prosecutions. if you're talking to people and encouraging people to act in a way inconsistent with american values, that's not right. >> having a shadow secretary of state in the person of john kerry really was inappropriate. now, it's interesting of course to note here when you take a step back and remember of course that john kerry was one of the chief architects of the iran nuclear deal, the jcpoa, i've had the chance in the last several years to speak often with the foreign minister of iran. he's told me time and again at the time they were negotiating

that agreement, he spoke to john kerry more often than he saw his own wife. these are people that have very, very close relationships built over a long period of time, have a high level of trust for one another, and i think it's interesting that the u.s. secretary of state has the need to come out and say john kerry, back off. >> quite a few choice words from the secretary of state. john kerry has said he talks to a number of different countries right now. quite the statesman. hadley, we look forward to seeing the rest of your interview tomorrow on cnbc. >> thanks so much. still ahead, the bold mooufl that could possibly result in all of us getting a glimpse at the president's taxes. my conversation with the new york state senator pushing legislation that would make that happen. or pushing legislation that would make that happen with fidelity wealth management you get straightforward advice,

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we're back now with round up of other news headlines. another week, another rough plane landing. take a look, this plane with 89 passengers on board comes in for a rough landing in myanmar in asia. the pilot bringing down like textbook because no one was injured. back in this country, heavy

rain and flooding had new orleans canal street living up to that name. the governor declared state of emergency because of the heavy rain there. >> actress peggy lipton known for "mod squad" has died at age 72 of cancer. so, if the battle of over president trump's taxes was a game of chess was new york state did this week was equivalent of queen moving to kill point. andrew cuomo backs a bill that would allow the tax department to release the president's state returns to congress. earlier i spoke with the senator who voted for that bill. >> what the bill basically says is that the head of the ways and means committee, who is a democrat, the chair of the finance committee, who is a

republican, or the head of the committee on taxation, they can request new york state tax returns for anyone that they deem there is a legitimate legislative purpose. if there's that purpose, they can make that request and we provide it to them assuming they also make that same request to the federal. so, if they want six years of federal returns like in the case of trump, they can ask for six years of state returns and we can provide it. >> the president is not in office and he had released his tax returns, would this be moving through this quickly? >> i don't know. but what i do know is that right now we do have a president who is refusing through his secretary of the treasury and head of the irs to follow a law. since 1924 this law has been in place. congress can request any individual's tax returns. for steve mnuchin to say there's no purpose, there's no requirement on the federal level. the state law is more stringent than the federal law. we have to make sure we provide

the information that congress needs to do the appropriate investigations. >> what do you think the state tax returns will tell us about trump? >> well, it will tell us since he was a resident of new york state, it will give us a sense of his personal income. we've heard that was leaked that he's had some bad years over the years. well, how did he turn it around? who helped him turn it around? and are those people now benefitting from his presidency. >> all right. joining me now to connect all the dots in all of this is daniel alonzo, and returning with me awasan and jeff mason. will this bill achieve what they're trying to get, to get the house ways and means committee to see the president's state tax returns. >> the bill says nothing about the president. so, one would assume what the bill is trying to achieve is a method for new york state to legally give information to congress. so, the bill doesn't mention

president trump. >> doesn't mention the president's name per se, but it says if somebody happens to have a subpoena from congress and their name rhymes with rump, then here. will it achieve the goal that the democrats want? >> it should akmooef the goal, yes. new york state returns from much of the information that federal returns have. the bill that's pending would require congress if they got the information to follow the rules in the federal code which requires that they be -- that identifiable tax returns be provided in closed session. they would be provided to these taxation committees. >> are you surprised this is the measure? aren't there easier ways to get somebody's tax returns? >> there's no easy ways, but there are interesting and creative ways. what we used to do was use grand jury process which, again, is secret. we would subpoena accountants to get the information. we would subpoena state agencies or go through the process which

is in law as well to get returns directly from the irs. but there are processes for criminal investigations. that's not what this is. this is a legislative committee. >> but it is an attempted end around. while we've been saying the public will get to see this if new york is successful, it'll be congress. >> under new york's bill, yes, it'll be congress. >> okay. a federal judge is expect today rule this week on whether the president can quash a subpoena to ban. if a subpoena can stand, what happens if trump doesn't comply? >> well, that's a very interesting question, and i suppose it'll be yet another wrinkle in this ongoing saga. something that your viewers should keep in mind is that every time the president or his team talks about his tax returns, they're basically highlighting yet another broken campaign promise from president

trump. during the 2016 race and the primary in the republican field before it, donald trump promised repeatedly again and again and again, publicly, that i will release my tax returns. and obviously he was elected president and he never did and he hasn't for the last two years of his presidency. so, when the president and his allies triumphantly as the president did over the weekend on twitter that he won the 2016 race and battle against hillary clinton in part with no tax returns being made public, what he and his allies are essentially saying is that one of the things we won the 2016 race on whether his supporters carry or not is a lie. and that's important to under score. >> the president has said this was litigated in 2016. and he did tweet about that as you were mentioned just saturday night saying that whether he released his tax returns or not during the 2016 election is

moot. but will this still be an issue in 2020? >> well, i think democrats will continue to make it an issue in 2020. i think that in the quest to get information about president trump's presidency and his life before the presidency, there's a lot of information in those returns that democrats would like to see. and i also think that what i was saying earlier in terms of the house investigations applies here. the white house is done. this is not something that the president is going to give the green light to. he didn't in 2016. he views the fact that he won without having to do that when it was considered at the time a pretty major step back from tradition has given him, any way, the reason to draw the conclusion i didn't need to do this in 2016. i'm not going to need to do it again in 2020. >> so, the president doubling down on it being litigated already. thanks to daniel, aswan, and

jeff. so, "saturday night live" poking fun at republicans asking the question what would it take to break with president trump. >> okay. this week president trump has escalated his trade war with china. it's estimated this will cost the country $1.4 trillion in market value. you all have opposed tariffs in the past. do you support the tariffs now. >> there's a simple answer to that. there was no collusion. >> okay. but i'm asking you about china. >> uh-huh. mm-hm. h. mm-hm. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice! but uh, what's up with your partner? oh! we just spend all day telling everyone how we customize car insurance because no two people are alike, so... limu gets a little confused when he sees another bird that looks exactly like him. ya... he'll figure it out.

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>> we do say happy mothers' day. presidential contenders are saying thanks to the women in their lives and hearing the favorite memories of moms. >> i'm going to run for president of the united states because as a young mom i'm going to fight for other peoples' kids as hard as i would fight for my own. >> my mom can see what we have been feeling and seeing and hearing from our fellow texans, that there's nothing to divide us. >> my mom taught second grade until he was 70 years old and she told me if you do something wrong, don't tell the truth, you take responsibility for it. you don't blame it on the other kid. >> it's what we always told you, that this is america. you can be anything you want to be. >> you see, i learned from my mother so many years ago in this community that when we want change, we don't wait for

change. we work for it. >> my mother used to say, don't sit around and complain about things. do something. and basically i think she was basically saying you've got to get up and stand up and don't give up the fight. [ chuckles ] so, what are some key takeaways from this commercial? did any of you hear the "bundle your home and auto" part? -i like that, just not when it comes out of her mouth. -yeah, as a mother, i wouldn't want my kids to see that. -good mom. -to see -- wait. i'm sorry. what? -don't kids see enough violence as it is? -i've seen violence. -maybe we turn the word "bundle" into a character, like mr. bundles. -top o' the bundle to you. [ laughter ] bundle, bundle, bundle. -my kids would love that. -yeah. bundle, bundle, bundle. what is that? uh mine, why? it's just that it's... lavender. yes it is, it's for men but i like the smell of it laughs ♪

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welcome back. a new movie opens this coming friday stars two-time oscar nominee laura dern taking up perhaps one of the more controversial executions of recent history. it tells the story of todd willingham who maintained his innocence of his three young daughters. the movie is called "trial by far." >> do you understand what that means? we've got a snitch, a gas can never found, and stacy's testimony. look at this evidence. we've got plenty to appeal with the fifth circuit. >> i've already spent five appeals. i've only got one more left. >> you've got one more left. >> it's going to go the same as all the others. >> todd, you've got one more.

>> i'm joined now by elizabeth gilbert, the real life inspiration for laura dern's character who fought to free him and director ed wick. i'm so happy you guys are here with me. i watched your movie. it's absolutely fascinating. i want to start with you. there's so many cases we've heard of where there are many people on death row that say they are completely innocent and they say so until the very end. what is it about todd that stood out to you so many years ago? >> the personal interactions and the letters that he wrote. >> he wrote you alreadies which is how you got to know him. >> yes, exactly. he wrote first and then i went and visited. i went in with assumption he was guilty and would say he was innocent. after he told me about the events, i went and i looked at the court records. and then things started to seem strange to me, the three-day trial, the use of the jailhouse

snitch, just red flagged popped up. they used dr. death to ensure the death penalty. so, my idea was just get the word out. something's wrong with this trial. >> and it really is a wrong wit trial. >> it's a tragic story overall, the story of a man inside a house, there was a fire, there was allegations that he may have poured gasoline there and his three young daughters were the only ones in there. witnesses who were reportedly saying all he cared about was his mustang outside. so tough for you to take on? >> i didn't know anything what i was doing. it was like a volunteer, signing up for a random name. and this particular case was pretty horrifying when he told me about it. he was very upfront and honest about everything. his statement to me originally was, and consistently was, i'm guilty of one thing and that was not saving my children. >> that has to be tough overall,

around. ed, what got you interested in the story? >> david grand in the new yorker wrote an extraordinary piece. i read it and i was ensensed because it seemed to be a catalog of everything wrong in the criminal justice system. it was withholding evidence, junk science, jailhouse snitches and most it was about poverty and class. if you can't afford a proper defense, you're going to end up dieing. >> we talk about minorities being the victims of injustin fairfax injustice. >> poverty and race go together sometimes. this case was all about poverty. >> do you feel an innocent man died in this case? >> absolutely. >> as i mentioned to elizabeth, there are many innocent people who die all the time in our system right now sadly.

>> justice scalia said if we could demonstrate one innocent man had been put together, it would call into question the death penalty. he was a proponent of the death penalty and this was that case. >> he did have a wife who changed her story. and until his dieing breath, she was there visiting him in the prison. the first time ever? >> yes. actually i interviewed her when i first went, and she was adamant that he was innocent. she said he would never do this, he loved his children, he treated her badly, he acknowledged that as well. it was a last minute change on her part. he always wondered and asked her to come. why don't you visit me? they got divorced during the process, he assumed he would never see her again. his final request was to be buried by the children. she told him that wasn't going

to happen. that was very distressing to him. i was not there, but i know in the end she said she thought he was guilty. >> why should people care about his case? >> to me it's more about todd did two good things in his death. he made sure texas did thorough and scientifically-based investigations. and then also for me personally, i had a terrible car accident and the experience of visiting him on death row, talking to him about how to endure the difficulties, him telling me how he endured the difficulties, allowed me to endure the difficulties of recovering from my accident. so on a personal level, his death helped me through my recovery. and on an institutional level you can't have anyone say this was an arson without proving it was science. >> as i mentioned at the top,

you had some power houses part of this, many people who wanted to be part of this project. >> yeah. look, laura dern has not been a secret for a long time, but obviously so many people have now -- are becoming so aware of her ability. it's the most remarkable performance by someone who's becoming one of the great actresses of our day. >> you've done so many of these fantastic movies "glory," "birth of a nation" and this while, while it was touching, where does it stand out in your storied career? >> one of the things most inspiring to me was the story of elizabeth and todd, that these two people actually created meaning in the worst of circumstances. and that describes something very important to all of our lives, because he could have chosen despair but instead it's about the value of a life. >> a quick side note.

in thinking about "birth of a nation" there. you shot it in savannah, georgia, i believe. >> yes. >> there's been this backlash against georgia because of the heartbeat bill recently. that in mind, would you ever shoot in georgia again? >> it's a very tough political question. those people who are working on that film are people who are probably of a different political persuasion. people who are, you know, not interested in having their livelihoods ruined by the film business. on the other hand, i think if you have a political view and you think this is a way of doing something to enforce it, the same way i was able to make this movie, then you should do what you believe in. >> okay. we'll see how it all plays out. >> yep. >> it puts a lot of film makers in a tough situation. >> sure it does. >> elizabeth thanks to you for your work and being here.

really appreciate it. fantastic movie as well. thank you, guys. elizabeth gilbert and ed zwick. thank you. that does it for this hour of msnbc live. i'll be back next saturday at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. up next "kasie dc." happy mother's day to all the moms. c. happy mother's day to all the moms

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welcome to "kasie dc." i'm kasie hunt. we're live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight the resistance. the president resists as congress tries to pry information out of the white house and tests the cofoundatio of our constitution. and mitch mcconnell says case closed. democrats press for testimony from robert mueller. plus nothing says mother's day like anthony scaramucci. the former white house communications director joins me after patching things up with john kelly. later, the calm before the trade war. but first, remember infrastructure week? >> we're very excited about the conversation that we had with the president. >> that was a very constructive meeting. >> we think we can work with the president. >> there was goodwill in the meeting. >> the purpose of the meeting is not to criticize the president of the united states.