much for being on this morning. that does it for us on this memorial day. we'll see you back tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. eastern. until then, stick with msnbc all day for your breaking news and political analysis. have a nice holiday. hey, there, everybody. i'm yasmin vassoughian. thank you for starting your holiday with us. we have a lot of news to get to this morning, starting with president trump undercutting his own national security adviser over whether or not north korea violated u.n. resolutions. first on twitter, then doubling down overnight at a press conference in tokyo. watch this. >> my people think it could have been a violation, as you know. i view it differently. >> but, oh, wait,there's more. the president of the united states cheers as the repressive regime attacks one of his political opponents, former vice president joe biden. at least two people are killed and dozens injured as a

massive tornado rips through oklahoma. winds in excess of 140 miles per hour, leveling a motel and demolishing a nearby trailer park. >> the house exploded. i remember us flipping in the air and spinning around and landing and i looked around for a second and it was just pitch black. and a shocking new report from "the new york times" revealing that the technology behind a cyber attack that crippled the city of baltimore was developed and then stolen from our own nsa. but we start in tokyo where the president has been attending a state banquet. hallie jackson is there for us. hallie, good morning to everybody out there, good evening to you. the president seemed to make more news for praising kim jong-un rather than japan's prime minister, shinzo abe. talk to us about that. >> reporter: yeah, listen, plenty of praise for both leaders, which was interesting and striking, especially given that president trump did not back down from his dismissal,

you could call it, downplaying pyongyang's latest provocation. the president asked directly whether he thought those recent missile tests by north korea violated united nations security council resolutions, and the president says, it doesn't matter. he says he thinks perhaps kim jong-un was simply trying to get his attention, and this is significant, because it contradicts not only just his national security adviser, john bolton, who publicly just this weekend said that, yes, those missile tests do violate u.n. resolutions, but it also contradicts his host here. prime minister shinzo abe, who said the same thing. now, abe also went out of his way to make the point that president trump has, in his words, cracked the shell of distrust with kim jong-un and tried to take steps to come to some kind of an agreement with north korea on denuclearization, but that is certainly a difference between the two men, as to how they view the recent missile tests. of course, japan very much at threat if north korea were to do more than simply test those missiles and do something more

serious, given the proximity. so north korea, clearly front and center here at the news conference. we want to play you just a bit of what the president had to say when asked specifically about those tetests. >> i view it as a man, perhaps he wants to get attention, and perhaps not. who knows. it doesn't matter. all i know is there have been no nuclear tests. there have been no ballistic missiles going out. there have been no long-range missiles going out. and i think that some day we'll have a deal. i'm not in a rush. >> reporter: the president, you heard him there, insisting that he does think that he could get to a deal, although no rush with kim jong-un on denuclearization, even though kim has shown little in the way of trying to back up the promises that he has made to donald trump so far and the rest of the u.s. in addition to north korea, we have talked about how trade would be top of the agenda for the meetings, as well, between president trump and prime minister abe. listen, the expectation coming

into this was that there would be no deal announced here, and sure enough, that's what's happening here. right? the u.s. and japan are in talks about a potential agreement, as the president is visibly and publicly frustrated with the trade imbalance between the two countries. but right now the only thing that these two leaders have agreed to is to keep up the talks at a little bit of a faster pace, but nothing just yet. president trump has said he wants to wait until after abe gets through the july parliamentary elections here in japan, basically giving his friend a little bit of breathing room on the domestic political front. the other piece of this, it's all about relationships, right, this trip, and that includes the relationship between the trumps and the royal family here, as the president became the first world leader to meet the new emperor, emperor naruhito. they actually just wrapped up dinner here a little bit ago, even as folks back home are getting ready for breakfast. >> hallie, stay close. we'll be watching developments from there throughout the hour, so we appreciate you. i want to bring in bill ruben, president of the

washington strategy group. joel, thanks joining us on this memorial day. very much appreciate it. >> thanks, yasmin. >> let's talk about the consequences here of the president publicly undercutting john bolton, his national security adviser. >> yeah, it's really pathetic, quite frankly, to have the president so aggressively attack his own team on foreign soil. and it's just demonstrates that there's no policy that is coherent on north korea. we don't know how to protect our security towards north korea. we have a president who doesn't seem to have a vision for it. and he clearly doesn't seem to be feeling any urgency for it, which brings up a lot of questions. you know, the way he talks about kim, it's reminiscent of the way he spoke about putin in 2016, where he essentially just explained away bad behavior. and so this is raising a lot more questions about what he's trying to do with north korea than answers. >> so, obviously, we're talking about north korea here and the strategy which the president has with north korea, which we're not really quite sure of, quite

honestly. but what is this also saying about the relationship that the president has with john bolton, especially considering the developments with regards to iran over the last couple of weeks? >> it's fascinating to watch. john bolton is a war hawk. john bolton has been an arch advocate for military intervention overseas. the president seems to argue he doesn't want that, but he enjoys having john bolton by his side. and bolton, in a strange way, is actually echoing a lot of positions, particularly on north korea, in this latest round of missile tests, that the national security community across the board accepts as accurate. so the president doesn't seem to be in sync with his own team, once again. and this isn't something we saw in the obama administration. we never saw president obama disagreeing with john kerry or his national security adviser, susan rice, so publicly, so blata blatantly. it's actually a core national security issue. it really undermines the strength of our word overseas. >> and there were reports that john bolton was undercutting the

president when it came to iran. it so seemed as if this was the president publicly saying, look, i'm going to disagree with john bolton and set the precedent for the policy that it's going to happen overseas, whether it be with north korea or with iran. let's talk about the president and iran, as well. he talked about iran and supported japan's offer to broker dialogue between the u.s. and iran, although we do know from iran's point of view, they have no intention of sitting down with the president. he also said, this is about the iran nuclear deal, which trump pulled out of a year ago. let's take a listen to that. >> if you look at the deal that biden and president obama signed, they would have access, free access to nuclear weapons where they wouldn't even be in violation, in just a very short period of time. what kind of a deal is that? so we can't have that. >> you were part of the state department when the deal got signed. there are some inaccuracies in what the president just said, to say the least.

>> that's right. >> so talk about that. >> i mean, where to begin? first and foremost, the president is misrepresenting the deal and in fact, what he's saying is that he will be worried about the future. well, the future is now, because of his policy. right now, we have no constraints in the iran nuclear program, the u.s. broke our participation in the deal. and iran, as a result, is starting to reenergize its nuclear activities. and we're taking a military posture towards iran, particularly with john bolton's statements recently, that is incentivizing more dangerous behavior and potentially raising a conflict that would happen in the gulf, that would not prevent a nuclear weapon, at a minimum. and so this policy is a mess. and it really is not clear what the goals are, beyond just disruption. >> all right, joel ruben for us, thank you, joel. good talking to you on this memorial day. have a good rest of your day. >> thank. >> for more on all of this and how this is being viewed from capitol hill, i want to bring in

julia manchester, joining me now. welcome. katherine, i'll start with you on this one. so domestically, the president is at odds with democrats in congress. as we well know by now, he has vowed to not work with them until investigations end. no infrastructure plans in place after house speaker nancy pelosi and senator schumer presented those. since it seems that domestic policy is at a standstill right now in this country, phow important is it for this president to have foreign policy victories? >> i think it's very important for him, but i'm not sure there's a lot of forward progress on that. democrats in congress have had concerns about john bolton, especially, and his policy and ideas about how to move forward with iran, now that the u.s. has exited the iran nuclear deal. i know that in recent weeks, many democrats especially in the senate and the house have voiced concerns about john bolton's leadership on these issues, and

i think that they are certainly looking towards this japan trip to see how president trump is dealing with these issues on the world stage. >> so you don't necessarily see a path for the president having foreign policy victories. >> i think that in its current iteration, of course, john bolton, this weekend, said things that were on par with the national -- the international viewpoint on what north korea has done, with their testing, however, john bolton's views on iran have really riled up democrats on capitol hill. and i do think that makes it tough for the white house and congress to move forward on international issues. >> hey, julia, i want to play what lindsey graham, senator lindsey graham said about the president refusing to work with democrats here at home. take a listen. >> from president trump's point of view, i disagree with the idea that you can't work with them while they're doing things like this. you have to work with them.

you can't control mr. president, what the democrats do, but you can control what you do. they say "no" to you, that will help you. they say "yes" and work with you, that will help the country. >> i've got to say, i'm not sure how much i'm going to bet on lindsey graham sticking with that talking point, especially if he goes out on to the golf course with the president. but putting that aside, do you expect, julia, to see more pressure from the republicans on this issue? >> absolutely, yasmin. and i think republicans have grown frustrated behind closed door with the president on foreign policy. you know, the president says one thing and his advisers, even someone like john bolton, says another thing. and going into 2020, republicans would like to be united with the president as much as they can on various issues, whether it's foreign policy or domestic issues. in terms of north korea and iran, for example, i think you're also seeing republicans maybe behind closed doors get frustrated with the president's rhetoric. because it's always a pattern, you know, the president ratchets

up his rhetoric in terms of north korea or iran, and then he scales it back dramatically. and we saw that with north korea maybe a year and a half, two years ago, with the fire and fury comments. and now we're seeing that more with iran and maybe the president is trying to scale it back a little bit. however, i think on both ends of pennsylvania avenue, there's so much tension, because there isn't enough communication on these issues. at the end of the day, congress does control the pursestrings with a lot of foreign policy issues, especially if the idea of war is being floated with iran. so, obviously, something that capitol hill is paying attention to, but there clearly isn't enough communication between both sides. but, yes, you're right. lyindsaey graham could most liky walk back that talking point, even though he's clearly trying to send a message to president trump. >> katherine, i quickly want to switch to the growing pressure on speaker pelosi to at least open an impeachment inquiry here. do you think that is going to stick? >> i think that the caucus, the democratic caucus on capitol hill is still divided.

nancy pelosi and also democrats in the house who are -- who won trump districts for this new congress are very concerned about their constituents, who maybe have voted for trump, maybe are in neighborhoods where their neighbors are trump voters, moving forward with an impeachment proceeding puts those seats in danger for the democrats. and they do very much want to hold on to the house in 2020. it's not just the presidential campaign that's up for grabs. it's the house and senate that are, of course, on the table, also. i think that will remain an issue, but i do see more voices coming together for impeachment. and we do have the first republican in the house calling for impeachment proceedings to begin with justin amash. but he is not usually a leader that brings other republicans behind him. >> katherine, julia, stay with me. much more to talk about. i want to go now to the weather that's been developing

over the weekend, to oklahoma, where we have some powerful tornadoes that swept in over the weekend. nbc's kerry sanders is in el reno, just west of oklahoma city. kerry, thanks so much for joining us on this. first the flooding, now these tornadoes there. how bad is it from your perspective, kerry? >> reporter: well, if you consider what folks in this part of the country have been going through, in the last ten days, there have been more than 230 tornadoes that had touched down. and the one that you can see or the damage, at least, from the one over my shoulder here is extensive. this is estimated to be an ef-3, winds of about 140 miles an hour. this was a motel, yasmin, but as you can see, it's been destroyed. remarkably, everybody inside here survived, but the tornado stayed on the ground long enough that on the other side, it went into a mobile home park, where two people died. you know, the residents here known to be alert, to pay attention, and in this particular case, the sirens, the

alerts on their phones that went off, went off literally moments before the tornado arrived. so folks had very little time to take cover. the damage here, like so many of the tornadoes that we've seen touch down in more populated areas, is devastating. and of course, the threat of the flooding, as you noted, is continuing today, specifically, up and around the tulsa area, where the levees really, according to the mayor, haven't been tested back for 40 years like this, they were back in the 1940s and he says that we really haven't seen this sort of pressure and stress on the levees that he hopes will hold, but telling residents that they need to be concerned that there may be an evacuation, so be ready to go. don't wait to the last minute to prepare things in your house. >> wow, some awful images from there, kerry, to say the least. just complete and total destruction in some areas. really thinking about those people there today, especially on a day that is about remembrance and about celebration, of course, and they're having to deal with the

aftermath of this natural disaster. ker yu sanders for us, thank you so much, kerry. coming up, everybody, earlier this year, hackers took control of a major american city. now a shocking new report veals the technology behind it was actually taxpayer funded. your money. but next, every election cycle, voters complain that candidates are not focused enough on policy, but is senator elizabeth warren's focus on issue and putting out plans actually helping her chances of winning the nomination? that question is next. inning the nomination that question is next. hi, i'm dave. i supply 100% farm-fresh milk for lactaid.

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welcome back today. a few 2020 contenders are spending memorial day out on the trail. bernie sanders is stumping in new hampshire while elizabeth warren continues her swing in iowa. warren has earned the title of the policy candidate. and seems to be setting the pace across the field. but is it working on iowa voters? how much weight do they place on policy? nbc road warrior ali vitali has been on the trail for us with warren all weekend long, despite the fact it is a holiday, because that's just what ali vitali does and checking in with voters along the way. she's joining me now. hi, happy memorial day. thanks for joining us on this. what do voters there tell you with regards to elizabeth warren? how important is it that she's laying out policy issues the way that she is? >> reporter: yeah, yasmin, over the course of the past three days, as we've been following elizabeth warren, but also

several other candidates who have been out here in the hawkeye state, i've talked to over a dozen voters that if they care about the substance that voters talk about on the campaign trail, and if that's something they need to hear more of as they make their decision. and i think the striking thing here in a lot of these conversations, and it's not just in iowa, it's across the board, but people may not be decided, but they know what they like and they know what they don't. listen to what they told me. >> if i sense that someone else with equally progressive policy ideas was gaining popular momentum and, you know, i think buttigieg has a sort of an amazing charisma and appeal. he's so smart. he handles himself so well. >> but he's light on specifics. >> he is light on specifics. >> what led you to supporting her so early in this process? >> it's the way that she interacts with the crowd and the fact that she has definitive ideas and she says them and she is not scared to tell us about

it. >> i think america is ready for more than a personality. we need policy right now. we need a backlash of policy over what we've got right now. >> reporter: and yasmin, it's really interesting, some candidates get out here, they talk about policy, and they sometimes hit voters over the head with it, they don't really explain it very well. elizabeth warren does it in an interesting way, where she weaves her personal narrative into the policies that she's talking about. voters over the course of this weekend both at her rallies say that's a way for them to feel like it's accessible and explained to them, something that's going to be important as you go down the line. and there's one thing, elizabeth warren spends a lot of her time talking about policy. this is a place where that's important, because it's clearly, if you look at where she's putting her resources, a place where she really plans to win and win big come february of next year. she has over 50 staffers on the ground. that showed in her financials last quarter, but it's more than others have on the ground at

this point. >> is there a specific policy that voters are sort of attaching to, are glomming on to? >> reporter: it's interesting. they generally will say that she's the policy person in the race. and that's definitely the first thing that you hear when you ask them about elizabeth warren. but i think the thing that a lot of voters are latching on to is this idea of student loan debt forgiveness. that's something that elizabeth warren came out with a few weeks ago and a plan that really does seem to be resonating out here on the campaign trail. >> ali vitali for us. thanks, ali. i want to go back to my panel. katherine and julia are back to weigh in. we just heard out of iowa with regards to elizabeth warren and how important her specific policy stances are, what do you make of it? this lane that she's really carved out for herself? >> i think it's something she's had to do. remember, elizabeth warren, a lot of people would say, would have a very dull start to her campaign. skro joe biden, who got in the game very light, had so much more publicity because of his name recognition. however, elizabeth warren is one

of two progressives really running in this race. and she really needs her imperative at this point is really to get out ahead of bernie sanders, because they're both going to be really vying for that progressive vote. so it's very important that she first try to get as many progressives, as much progressive support as possible. and she's also trying to fight it out among name recognition. remember, obviously, in new york and washington, d.c., and in massachusetts, elizabeth warren is a big name. however, i think a lot of americans looking in on this race are still getting to know more of these candidates and getting to know where they stand. so her carving out her policy preferences this early, it's a way for her to stand out. and we're actually seeing some movement with her among the polling. however, i would say candidates like beto o'rourke or mayor pete buttigieg, who have been very policy light, they've been falling behind. this is clearly something that seems to be benefiting her. >> so let's talk quickly about pete buttigieg, katherine, because you heard that one voter

say that he has charisma, he is a smart guy, but he agreed with ali when he said, he's policy light. yeah, he is policy light. is that something that buttigieg needs to take in and use on the campaign trail where he needs to come up with stronger policy stances in order to rise in the polls? >> i think the voters are looking for some specific policy proposals. and i think you see that especially with elizabeth warren, who really leans on her background as an educator, breaking down complicated policy ideas into a digestible format for voters of all stripes to understand what her goals are. i think that the rest of the candidates in the field who aren't leaning heavily on specific policy ideas are going to be driven to compete with that. i think that is a standard that is being set by elizabeth warren and a few others. she's not alone, but she has been the candidate with a plan,

is what people are saying. and i think that buttigieg, beto, and others will have to follow her on that. >> all right. katherine talley mcmanus and julia manchester, thank you both. up next, we stay on 2020, sort of. president trump taking time today during his press conference with the japanese prime minister to support north korea's comments about former vice president joe biden. and no, they were not complimentary. that's next. t complimentary. that's next. (alarm beeping) welcome to our busy world. where we all want more energy. but with less carbon footprint. that's why, at bp, we're working to make energy that's cleaner and better. we're producing cleaner-burning natural gas. and solar and wind power.

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welcome back. right now president trump is dining at tokyo's imperial palace alongside japanese prime minister shinzo abe. the dinner follows a joint press conference where the president doubled down on his criticism of democratic front-runner joe biden, even siding with north korean dictator kim jong-un, over his attacks on the former vice president. >> kim jong-un made a statement that joe biden is a low-iq individual. he probably is, based on his record. i think i agree with him on that. but i can tell you that joe biden was a disaster. his administration, with president obama, they were basically a disaster. >> all right. let's get into former deputy

assistant secretary of state, phillippe rines, co-host of the podcast "unredacted" and john. phillippe, i'll start with you on this one, standing on foreign soil, president trump goes after a former u.s. vice president. how are comments like that viewed in a country like japan, which we well know, shows of respect are the gold standard. >> well, you hit the nail on the head, jasmine. especially in asia, where people are very protocol and very tradition-oriented. in fact, donald trump is there celebrating in part the new monarch, only recently evaluated. but, you know, watching him, there's no difference between where he is. he's in japan, but it's a typical weekend where he's tweeting, lying, and golfing. it just happens to be in tokyo. there's a real prior to the world going mad in 2017, when he took office, there has been a tradition of politics stopping at the water's edge.

what's funny is that typically the rule is, people here stop criticizing the president abroad. in his case, it's oddly the president fighting back. but we know he's not telling the truth. abe is not telling him these things. and it's not because i know what's in abe's heart, but i know what's in his head. these guys look at us and they don't know who the next president is. they don't know if it's joe biden. they don't know if donald trump keeps the office. they don't know if it's president castro or president harris. they keep their powder dry. and while abe is, you know, basically the ending to the eagle while he's there, doing basically the same job that mercedes schlapp and sarah sanders did last week in the white house, where they're going down the aisle, asking everyone to give a testimonial, the japanese are smarter than that. the japanese are looking at our system and they're as confused the not more confused than what we are.

and they're going to play it out. and this is the card that they're dealt right now and they'll wait for another year, too. >> in a way, it seems as if you're saying the prime minister is sort of playing a dance and understands what he can gain from this president, but doesn't necessarily want to agree with anything that he says on someone who's possibly running for president, who is running for president, in fact, because who knows if he's actually going to be sitting next to him at a press conference in three years. >> you said it a hell of a lot better than i did, but yes. >> i don't think so! but john, does this not just evaluate biden when he attacks him overseas? >> oh, sure. i mean, you know, trump is an unconventional president, so he's an unconventional candidate in 2016, and he's an unconvention re-election candidate in 2020. when i wrote speeches from ronald reagan in 1988, when the race was going on between bush and dukakis, and reagan was giving campaign speeches on

bush's behalf, dukakis' name was not mentioned. reagan would not attack dukakis by name. he would just say, "the other fella," those other guys, the other candidate. for two reasons, one of which was to remain above the fray to some degree, and the other was to not evaluate dukakis by mentioning him while he was mentioning bush. they had this kind of double-edged sword. trump is trying to needle biden into attacking him and starting the race really early. biden, so far, is refusing to take the bait. if you were any one of the 22, 23, 77 other democratic candidates, i assume you are now standing there, hoping that trump will attack you. >> interesting. >> that it will help you to get the name recognition off trump, where everybody goes, oh, my god! look, he's attacking buttigieg. i mean, he has attacked buttigieg and warren and stuff like that, but not like this

with biden. i know that the republicans fear that he is helping biden and that biden is the strongest democratic candidate against him and so he should probably keep his mouth shut. but he does what he does. >> phillippe, i heard you laughing when john said that, that these candidates are just sort of standing by, waiting for the president to attack them, to evaluate their status, evaluate their name in the polls, hopefully. the question is, are they prepared? >> well, that's the point i was going to make, is that, first off, when john mentions reagan and bush, it's worth noting that since 1952, george h.w. bush is the only, quote, third-term president. so what reagan was doing in terms of not engaging dukakis might have worked. but it's not just the publicity that someone wants, if a senator gillibrand or a senator booker or any of the 22, 23, 77, want publicity -- want him to attack them, it's not just applity t p

they want to show that they can punch back. part of the reason that joe biden seems to be doing so well and leading by such a commanding margin is that people do believe that he can take what trump throws at him and he can throw it back. so if you are any of these folks, you don't just want him to tweet at you or yell at you or pretend that kim jong-un or a foreign leader says that you're low iq, you want to shoot back. you want primary voters, you want democrats to say, wow, i can see them in a debate. i can see them in the general election. they know how to handle donald trump. >> it's such an interesting point, because i think the question so far up until this point was voters asking themselves, do i want to vote for somebody whoi i believe in r somebody who can actually beat the president? and it seems as though they want to show, that you can believe in me, and i can also beat the president at his own game. it's an interesting point, phillippe, that you bring up. john, the president has had a very full schedule, to say the least, between sumo matches and golfing and hibachi dinner with the prime minister.

but he is apparently, amidst all of this, not too busy to tweet, which phillippe referred to earlier. rasheed talib called for the president's impeachment over the weekend, as we well know at this point. he tweeted back saying this, "impeach for what. having created perhaps the greatest economy in our country's history, rebuilding our military, taking care of our vets, judges, best jobs numbers ever and much more. dems are obstructionists." the president could be talking trade with japan. there are a lot of republicans right now that support what the president is doing with regards to trade and the trade deficits that exist with both china and japan. there is a $60 billion plus trade deficit with japan right now. he could be riding high on that. there are even some democrats who support what he's doing. and yet, instead, he is turning the conversation to impeachment once again and responding to people's tweets online. >> okay. so, what's in his head is 2020. this is the campaign message of 2020. that tweet is the way he is running. he is going to run by saying

economy, building, you know, restoring jobs, restoring the military, cutting regulations, getting judges, democrats don't want to do anything except cavel and campaign. so in some cases, this shows you he's the least policy oriented president we've ever had and he's not going to be that interested, even though trade is the one issue that's close to his heart. he's been talking about trade deficits for 30 years, unlike anything else. but he's not interested in the details and he's not running on policy. he's running on this large big-picture macro question of whether the country will be better off in 2020 than it was in 2016. >> appreciate it, guys. coming up, a shocking new report from "the new york times." the technology behind a cyber attack that crippled a major american city developed and then stolen from our own nsa. the reporter behind this incredible story is joining me next. ind this incredible story is joining me next this is rick blomquist

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disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services in the city. and according to service experts briefed on the case, a copy component of the malware that cyber criminals used in the attack, it was developed at taxpayer's expense. joining me now, national security reporter, scott shane on this. scott, thanks for joining us today. appreciate it. tell us more, first of all want this baltimore attack and what exactly caused it in the city. >> well, basically, about three weeks ago, city workers suddenly found their computers lock up and a ransomware message appeared on their screens, they couldn't do anything with them. and it demanded what amounts to about $100,000 in bitcoin payments, this kind of online currency, to unfreeze their computers. and as experts advised, the city chose not to pay the ransom.

even if you pay it, you don't know if the extortionists are going town freeze the computers. so they called in cyber experts who started working on this, trying to restore the system, but at least as of friday, there was still a message on the city hall website saying that city employees did not have their email. so you can imagine what it's like to run a city with no email. >> do we know who's behind the attack? >> we don't know. the assumption is that it's a, you know, one of many, many criminal cyber attackers out there. what distinguishes this attack and what we wrote about is that we're told that one component of the software used in the attack was something called eternal blue. which was developed years ago at the national security agency, which is actually just down the road here from where i am in baltimore. and nsa develops these tools to

break into foreign computer systems for espionage purposes. and apparently eternal blue was very successful for them for many years. but then in 2016, a still-unidentified mysterious group called the shadow brokers stole a lot of nsa tools, put them up online, including this eternal blue, and any criminal group or state intelligence service could grab them and use them and that's what's happened. >> so how dangerous is it is that eternal blue is out there and being used in these nefarious ways? and how difficult is it to plug the holes, the vulnerabilities in which they're attacking? especially in cities like baltimore? >> well, in 2016, nsa alerted microsoft that these tools were out there floating around, and microsoft sent out an update, a

match for windows, and if you install that patch, eternal blue will not affect your system. but the problem is, as any computer user knows, you get these messages saying, please update your software. you don't always follow them. and that's true of cities whose budgets are sometimes stretched. and many companies. and so many -- there's still, to this day, are many, many hundreds of thousands of computers around the world using unpatched versions of windows that are still vulnerable to the eternal blue attack. >> scott shane, thank you so much, scott. very important story you brought to us. appreciate it. coming up, everybody. while we all pause and reflect today to remember our fallen heros, an annual report revealing another danger to members of our military. soaring rates of cancer among the ranks. that disturbing story is next. i. hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?!

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while the country honors those who died while serving in the military on this memorial day, a new report is shining a light on another threat facing veterans, rising cancer rates. the tragedy assistance program for survivors or taps has reported a spike in membership

just in the last five years. reporting a 51% increase in the numbers of families grieving a service member who died due to illness or cancer. joining me now, tara cop. good morning to you. >> thank for having me. >> tell us more about what you found? >> for years, the number one killer of veterans has been suicide and the group taps, they have noticed a spike in families coming forward whose loved one, service member died at a very young age from a very rare cancer and more and more families started to come forward. they have more than 10,000 families in the taps organization now where the service member didn't die because of an ied, they died because of cancer or other illnesses. it has led the group to make a really terrible prognostication for next year that the number one killer won't be suicide anymore, it will be cancers and

illnesses. >> what is the explanation here? is there any connection that is tieing these illnesses to these veterans? >> we think so. you know, we have been in afghanistan for 18 years and iraq for 16, and one of the number one things that soldiers were exposed to were burn pits. these are massive open fire pits where everything from computer parts to rubber tires to ammunition, were burned and troops inhaled these fumes as i that slept. you've seen a rise in cancers associated with that type of exposure, bladder cancers, respiratory issues, lung cancers. across in other forms, you see people who dealt with airfields and the fire fighting foam, which is also tied to different types of rare cancers, so, you know, across the spectrum, you have service members who were not only in harm's way because of the enemy but because of the things they inhaled and worked with.

>> is the government doing anything to help these veterans? and also to help catch it before it progresses to later stage cancers? >> so that has been the thing that has been the most heartbreaking for a lot of these widows. i was at the taps conference yesterday, and again and again, i would talk to someone who said their number one enemy was misdiagnosis. you know, the service member came home with a cough and went to doctor after doctor and it was either the flu or they didn't think it was something serious and it was caught too late. the department of veterans affairs was at this conference yesterday and said for the first time that they are really going to try and get a handle on it. there's going to be some new systems coming online where a service member served and when they were there will be part of the medical record so that doctors can more easily say, all right, well this forward operating base had these contaminants on it, and for that reason, we think this cough may be more than a cough. >> memorial day is incredibly

personal to so many people honoring the members of our community, our country and the veterans who have served this country over and over again. who are you honoring today? >> well, today i'm honoring my great uncle, terry harris. many people got to know him through hb o's band of brothers. he was one of the staff sergeants that rebelled against captain sobel, and jumped into normandy, and was killed at the battle of carrington. >> we honor him as well along with all the other veterans that served this great country. tara copp, appreciate it. >> a story of survival and perseverance, a 35-year-old woman lost in the woods for 17 days found alive and rescued. a story you need to hear to believe coming up next. y you ne believe coming up next ♪

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welcome back, an incredible rescue over two weeks in the making, 35 yoga instructor and physical therapist went into hawaii on may 8th. she became lost in the reserve, surviving on jungle fruit and water before she fell 20 feet into a ravine, breaking her leg and getting stuck, until a rescue team spotted her from the sky, pulling her to safety after a harrowing 17 days as amanda tells. her survival came down to a

simple choice. watch this. >> there were times of total fear and loss and wanting to give up and it did come down to life and death, and i had to choose, and i chose life. i wasn't going to take the easy way out. >> that wraps up this hour. i'm yasmin vossoughian. and coming up right now, more news. >> how are you, happy memorial day, enjoy the rest of your holiday. i'm chris jansing in for stephanie ruhle. it is 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. we have a lot to get to starting with blasting joe biden, president trump siding with kim jong un on the world stage trashing the former vice president and 2020 democratic front runner in japan. >> kim jong un made a statement that joe biden is a low iq individual. he probably is. >> and more headlines coming out of the news conference. his preoccupation with biden

continuing as he condemns the obama administration's horrible iran deal, and contradicting his host and own national security adviser. all with the i word on his mind. president trump firing off a series of blistering tweets this morning accusing the democrats of obsessing over impeachment, and the power of one, one fierce reaction is growing after a $19 billion disaster relief bill which was expected to pass unanimously, blocked by a lone republican congressman. the battle is far from over. i want to go to chief white house correspondent hallie jackson in tokyo where president trump has been attending a state banquet with the japanese prime minister, so president trump and prime minister abe are on the same page with a lot of issues but this notable exception, north korea came to the floor over the last several hours. tell