msnbc on wednesday and thursday nice. thanks to my guests, and to all of you for watching, that does it for our hour, i'm nicole wallace. mtp daily steve kornacki in for chuck starts right now. ♪ if it's monday, the president backs down from his threat of mass deportations, but institutes a new deadline and new demand for a deal as more troubling reports emerge about unsafe and unsanitary conditions at u.s. facilities. plus, the president hits iran with more sanctions and warns that his restraint has limits and as we head into the first debates, joe biden and pete buttigieg are confronting difficult questions on race. and if it's monday, it's "meet

the police daily." good evening, i'm steve kornacki in new york for chuck todd. we have developing news about what's happening to children another u.s. custody at border facilities. nbc news reports that nearly 300 children have been removed from a border patrol facility near el paso, texas, following reports they were being held in deplorable conditions. lawyers tell telling associated press that, quote, kids are taking care of kids and there is inadequate food, water and sanitation for the 250 infants, children and teens at the border patrol stations. lawyers describe seeing children not being able to shower for days or even weeks, inadequate food, flu outbreaks and long period of detention. in his meet the press interview, chuck todd pressed president trump about the conditions at border patrol facilities and the president pinned the blame on the obama administration and congress. >> the stories are horrible, mr.

president, you have children without their parents, you have kids taking care of kids. >> yeah. >> you've read these reports. i know people are coming to you. i know you think this is the democrat's problem. forget it. why aren't you doing something? they are in terrible place down there in homestead, florida, where i grew up, the conditions are terrible. >> i agree. and it's been that way for a long time. >> do something. >> and president obama built the cables, remember when they said i built them, it was 1914. >> do two wrongs make a right? >> i inherited segregation from president obama. president obama built they call them jail cells. they built. >> let me talk about now. you are not doing the recreation, schooling kids anymore. >> we are doing a fantastic job under the circumstances. the democrats aren't approving giving us the money. where is the money? the democrats are holding up the humanitarian aid. >> you had a political debate, these children could be impacted

for years. >> if the democrats would change the asylum laws and the loopholes, with i that i are refuse to do, they think it's good politics, everything would be solved immediately. but they refuse to do it. >> and the president is now demanding that democrats negotiate a border deal within the next two weeks or else he will begin raids that would lead to thousands of undocumented migrants being deported. nbc news reports that those raids were delayed this weekend because details leaked to the media and i.c.e. did not have the facility to house the 2,000 individuals expected to be arrested and hemmed for deportation. house speaker nancy pelosi attacked the president today for threatening those raids. >> when i saw that the president was going to have these raids, i mean, it's so appalling. it's outside the circle of civilized human behaviors, to be kicking down doors, splitting up families and the rest of that, in addition to the injustices happening at the border. if we all believe in the dignity

and worth of every person that's a spark of divinity and every person that must be respected how can we tolerate this kind of behavior in the united states of america? >> nbc news justice and national security reporter julia ainsley has been reporting on the border crisis. she joins us now. >> a strategist and msnbc political analyst. julia, let me start with you, just on the questions of the conditions that were reported on. we detailed there in the open at that border facility this week. those kids remember now being told, have been moved from that facility. first zell tell us who are the kids we are talking about here? we heard last year about this child separation policy, that apparently has been discontinued. are these children showing up unaccompanied at the border and also where are they now?

>> reporter: yeah, steve. so they're considered unaccompanied if terms -- in te how the customs and border call them. it's not toddlers that made it through terrain, themselves, oftentimes they come in with family members and adult siblings, people that looked after them to bring them to the u.s. side of the u.s.-mexico border. under the u.s. laws, people aren't considered a parent or lawful guardian. therefore, the child has to be sent to health and human services. the breakdown is there is not enough space in health and human services, they aren't taken out of border conditions quickly if you have. they're staying in this conditions. that's why president trump is making the case for more funding problem. here you have a management problem. we've seen the numbers for a long time on the backlogs. we were, my colleague and i were some of the first to report on the backlogs and what it would

mean. it wasn't until these lawyers that went into this facility in clint, texas, where we were able to see what those numbers mean, what it looks like in terms of health, flu, lice, dirty stained shirts. children looking after children, children aren't able to get care from an adult. the reason this particular facility got so bad, steve, was because the chief in the el paso sector decided to take all of the unaccompanied children he had and put them in a separate facility where they really weren't able to be cared for well at all. they didn't have adult migrants there or border patrol to take care of them. as of today, most of those children have been moved to another facility at a border patrol station still in the el paso sector, so close by. they'll be kept in tents. one thing we can say is tents are enormously more expensive and oftentimes contradiction and advocates say they don't provide adequate care because they are

temporary shelters. these tents do touch the ground. they're air conditioned. i have been in similar facilities before, it's not clear just because they move them from one location to another they're getting better care. they're still in border patrol custody. border patrol has not equipped vulnerable populations. >> that gets to the political question, you mentioned that issue of funding, emergency funding measure, working its way. it looks like one is on the way of passing the senate. a version in the house. we will see the context too as well as the number 51,000 unaccompanied minors who have been processed through hhs since last year. >> that number up 60% year over year. i want to put what alex azar, the hhs secretary. this is the line you hear a lot saying basically this is a situation where the boarder is being overwhelmed and it's up to congress to fix. listen to what he said. >> well, harris, the problem is that our system was not built at

the borders to be housing tens of thousands of unaccompanied kids coming across the border. the system's just completely overwhelmed there. these are fought good conditions for kids to be in. and our facilities at the department of heldment and human services where we get the unaccompanied kids, the kids that come across the border by themselves, we are now functionally full. we are going to run out of money in july. congress must act to fund us and fund the department of homeland security. it's just that simple. >> so, in terms of that response, i think the senate was 30-1 on this funding deal last week. it sounds like there might be more reservations from democrats in the house. is that something democrats, though, in terms of this funding bill, increasing capacity, that something democrats should be prepared to do now next? >> i think democrats are focused on different aspects, the humanitarian crisis has been created by there administration. what democrats are talking about

in terms of the funding resources toed a jude indicate these o -- to adjudicate asylum claims, to build more beds. >> the funding for the hhs refugee settlement expires this week. >> what i'm saying is we are having two separate conversations where democrats are more concerned about adjudicating these cases and making sure the asylum seekers can go through the legal process. again, they're not claiming asylum. republicans are gas lighting the american public about the causes of this crisis and the pathways out. it's not like immigration is the new problem. it's not like the conditions on the ground are things that we have never, ever seen before. there was a short period in the obama administration, we were putting those unaccompanied minors in detention. they quickly changed course. you've heard jay johnson talk

about that so i just think that there the a different approach and i'm a little bit tired of the administration gas lighting us and making it seem like this is a problem that they can just put their hands up, they can't do anything about giving these folks soap and toothbrushings, the bake fess saysties. >> in terms of understanding this $4.8 billion i think it is, something like that. if the expectation is there will be a bipartisan consensus in the next week or two, to put that money through, i want to see if that's the case, i want to ask julia, if it is, what impact it will have. what is your sense? >> there has to be some deal to eventually have funding for this, so you have dollars flowing to provide these things, these sanitary items, whether the administration decides to fund those or not. because you can't run out of that money. but you know, i think you will run into a situation here where it's just politically untenable for the white house at some point to continue to have these images being beamed in everyone's homes, to continued

to have your policy, the detention of thousands of these kids, it was not the policy under the obama administration, it is the result of zero tolerance policy. it's not like they can convince people otherwise. i think he thinks it plays really well to his base. maybe it does, more broadly, it does not way well to the political private. they don't want to play with a gun at their head. it's not a tenable way to operate. >> julia, where is it going on that question? the reservations i heard from the house is they don't trust how this administration would spend the money if allocated if they're giving it. but given these conditions on the border, given the funding running out for hhs for the resettlement program, do you expect that's a deal that will get through congress in a few weeks him you were pointing to management deal for the facility? will that make a difference? that's the question. >> on a management side it makes

you scratch your head why he would use the raids and use the scare tactic when the administration is desperate to get the money to expand attention. they need to expand attention for humanitarian reasons for children coming across the board sorry they can be cared for in better places. not in the places we've laid out in clint, texas. instead, the president asked for more detention at the same time he wants to increase raids. and so, of course, democrats are skeptical then. how will they know that money is used for children and people seeking humanitarian relief and not for immigrants being taken out of their homes in the interior of the country and held before deportation. that's an honest question. now, i will say as far as the funding and the conditions, i think dhs dug itself in a little bit on this part, because they aren't able to find a way to see exactly how that funding could alleviate such simple things, something like not having soap. it's hard to see how that is a funding issue, just need to have that until you go at the time

toothbrush. >> susan, again, look, the headlines here, obviously, and the attention being generated by the revelation of these horrible conditions. i think it reminds me last year politically when the child separation policy came to light. just the fact of that policy seemed to dominate the debate. is that what's happening to the white house? >> yes, i think what would be the wise direction now is to separate the issues for a moment of immigration and taking care of these children. this is a natural, a national emergency. these are children in u.s. custody, which means the president of the united states is ultimately responsible for these children. i think that the house, the democrats should say this is exactly what we need. this is where it has to go in a very narrow manner and put it out there, to solve this crisis that's happening right now. there are another issues. but i think they could have a very good win on this, because the president is petrified of now we've had articles written,

what happens when there are visuals? we know how he responds to it. he will want to get ahead of this, make it a national emergency. separate the issue, children in the u.s. custody, action must be taken now. >> okay. julia ainsley, thank you for joining us, bringing your expertise to that i appreciate it. susan, ben, you are all sticking around, coming up, it is the biggest week of the presidential contest yet. we got one 2020 candidate coming up here. we also got the rev who talk to another 2020 candidate about race. plus, after calling off that military strike. president trump ramps up the economic pressure on iran. will that work? a top democrat on the senate foreign relations committee joins us. n the senate foreign relations committee joins us

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prosperous and productive nation. >> that can go very quickly. it can be tomorrow. it can also be in years from now. so i look forward to discussing whatever i have to discuss with anybody that wants to speak remember in the meantime, who knows what's going to happen. i can only tell you we cannot ever let iran have a nuclear weapon. a lot of restraint has been shown by us, a lot of restraint. >> that doesn't mean we will show it in the future. >> president trump today announcing more sanctions on iran, essentially echoing what he told chuck this weekend on "meet the press." as my colleague put it, the president is offering iran a carrot and a very big stick. critics are calling this latest round of sanctions symbolic. the administration hopes the move will tighten the noose around iran's economy and force negotiations. senator ben carden, one of the most senior members of the house, the senate foreign relations committee, he joins me

now. thank you for taking a few minutes. first of all, do you think these sanctions that were announced today are real or more symbolic? >> first, it's good to be with you. the president is using sanctions as a way to isolate eastern. the challenge is, he's made the circumstances between the united states and iran very tense. there is a real risk of miscalculation that could lead to an armed conflict, which is not in the united states national security interest. i want to make one thing clear. eastern is the bad actor. the irans of the country is supporting terrorism. it's a country that has interfered in other countries. it's violated ballistic missile restrictions. so iran needs to be dealt with, sanctions can work. but it will be better if we were working with our allies rather than being isolated. president trump has isolated america. >> do you think that the sanctions, do you think these sanctions today were a good idea? there was a downed drone last week. do you think this would be an

appropriate action for the united states to take days after that? >> i think using sanctions in ra ready to what happened with a drone the appropriate. let me just caution. we want to use diplomacy. get iran back to the negotiating table to strike an agreement. if you are sanctioning the people you need to talk with, that's not a very good way to start diplomacy. >> what impact do you think before today, there have been sanctions posed after they backed out of the iran deal, the president seems to make the case iran is feeling this, it may impact their behavior in the future. do you think the sangs that are in place now have been having a real impact and do have any potential to change iran's behavior in the future? >> i think it's having a real impact on iran, on their economy. it's causing them to make different calculations. i'm concerned what those calculations might be. but make no mistake about it, we had a team to deal with the nuclear program. we could have imposed additional sanctions in regards to support

of terrorism and ballistic missiles and human rights violations. we could have had the support of our european partners in doing that. instead the president decided to pull out of the nuclear agreement and decided to impose sanctions without the support of our european partners, which would have been much more effective if we had their support in these sanctions. >> you say you are worried, potentially, about how iran might react to these sanctions and what the administration is doing. what specifically are you worried about there? >> well, they feel threatened. they may take additional military-type actions. >> that may escalate the potential for a military conflict between the united states and iran. once that starts, it's hard to control what happens next. there is really not a good military option for the united states. we're much better off trying to deal with diplomacy and if dealing with diplomacy, you isolate iran. you don't isolate america. sanctions helped to isolate iran. but the way the president has done that in withdrawing from

the nuclear agreement, we don't have partners that are joining us in this effort. >> well, iran, after the united states pulled out of the deal, iran continued to say it was honoring the terms of the deal. now it appears they are on the brink of violating it. what consequence is that going to have if iran begins violating the terms of the deal next? >> i suspect iran is making these announcements to get economic sanction, relief from uk and europe and germany. and france. they're trying to get some additional compensation for the damage caused their economy by the u.s. sanctions. so i think this is all a part of their negotiations with europe to try to get some relief. having said that, if they start the nuclear program, we were successful under the nuclear agreement to prevent iran from being able to have a breakout capacity for at least over one

year. if they start increasing their nuclear capacity, that's of great concern to us. it should also be of concern to our european partners. >> had the president launched a military strike last ike e week, it seems likely the administration would have cited the 2001 authorization, the authorization that launched the war on terror those many years ago. is that, whether it's with iran potentially in the future or any other actor in that region, is a new authorization needed through congress? >> steve, absolutely. just think back. the 2001 authorization passed by congress is days after our attack on 9/11. it was center on afghanistan and the taliban and those who harbored the terrorists that attacked our country. to say you can now use that against iran and its activities in 2019 is just ridiculous. the president needs to come to

congress and seek an authorization for the use of military force. that's what the constitution requires under war declarations and the war powers act specifically requires. so the president needs to come to congress. will he? well, we've seen over and over again the president use executive powers that many of us believe are unconstitutional. >> senator ben cardin, democrat from maryland, thank you for taking a few minutes. and coming up, south bend mayor pete buttigieg faces withering criticism as he faces his community after a white police officer shot and killed a black man. >> i am raising a 7-year-old grandson that when he sees the police, he is afraid. >> that is not what's supposed to happen in america and indiana in 2019.

. when i hear your ideas i ask where is the beef? >> you are not worthy of that platform. > . welcome back, former vice president joe biden called for democratic unity in south carolina over the weekend after a week in which several of his presidential rivals demanded an apology for remarks he made about working with segregation senators. this weekend, the majority of democrats stood shoulder-to-shoulder literal lid and figuratively for jimically burns world famous fish fry and the state party convention. pete buttigieg skipped the fish fry. he wanted to be in south bend

following a deadly shooting. he did speak to voters in south carolina on saturday. back in south bend on sunday. a town hall got heated as residents demanded answers in action in the wake of that shooting. >> get the racists off the streets. it's disrespectful that i wake up every day scared. it's disrespectful that i have three boys that i have to teach etch to them what to do. >> and with me now is the reverend al sharpton, host of politics nation right here on msnbc. he interviewed joe biden. he is in touch frequently with pete buttigieg. thank you for joining me. let me start on this question of how buttigieg back in south bend is handling this incident. you can see clearly a ton of emotion in that room yesterday, the political context of this, is we have been talking about buttigieg doing well, struggling with black voters in particular. how do you think he is handling

this situation in south bend? >> i think it's a very tense situation. i've talked to the widow of the man that was killed and what has increased attention is the fact that the police officer that shot and killed this man had a body camera on that was turned off. and i told mayor buttigieg when he called me that the first thing they must deal with is find out why that camera was turned off. and hold someone accountable for that. the purpose of having body cameras, which we all were a part of that movement to try and make that something that was required, was to have transparency. if you are going to allow policemen to turn off cameras as we've seen now in several incidents. then it mocks the whole idea of a body camera. he needs to have action on the body camera. he needs to have action on the disproportion fat amount of whites on a police force that does not reflect the population there. so i think that he has a moment

now where he could either set the a national model by taking action based on what the people there in the black community in south bend are saying or he could end up in a worsening position. one of the things that's ironic about this is the people that are facing these questions of race is joe biden and bute gig. buttigieg is the youngest one on the ticket and joe biden next to the oldest. so it's not a generational problem. it is a problem that we have got to deal with the issue of race and quit coping out that it's joe biden causes oh or somebody else because they're young. it is a problem we got to face. i think it is dead center as we go into these debates this week. >> i want to ask you about biden. one more on buttigieg, i think this is something a lot of people have been trying to figure out. i've noted it open these shows a lot. when you look at the polling.

i see buttigieg hitting double digits. sometimes with white voters. more specifically white college educated voters if you break it down that way. it includes poll after poll, it includes indiana, he is barely registering if at all with black voters. there was an interview, marsha fudge, she told the daily pete, quote, pete has a black problem, from that article a prominent black leader who requested anonymity was not referring to young reporters, he was in talks with several african-american lawmakers, that buttigieg's interactions were naive, it was not always translating when it came to their concerns. that was the explanation offered in this article. i'm curious when you see those poll numbers, what's your explanation for it? what is your sense of it? . >> my explanation is i think a lot of progressives assume they do not have to reach out and deem with the race gap as they

have dealt with the wealth gap and other issues. which is why we've seen any number of progressive candidates holding huge rallies with very few blacks coming and dealing with various issues, where they can sit around some of their friends that are black. but that are not really addressing the problems of the criminal justice system, mass incarceration, police brutality as well as economic disparities in the black community. >> that goes across all lines. and i think that the buttigieg problem there is only reflective of a larger problem of the divide that i think is not intentional but they have not come to terms with some of the progressive political leadership. >> that is that you cannot assume just because are you not as bad as others that you still are relating to the pain and the problems of people on the street in every day life as a black american. >> you mentioned the idea of a generational component to some

of this, in terms of biden, that's way wanted to ask you about. if there is a generational divide among black voters in the black electorate. because we seen this in polling where older black voters, a lot more likely to support biden than younger. over the controversial remarks, it seemed notable to me, jimically clyburn, came out defended joe biden, john lewis, a similar era, he defended biden as well. is there a generational opponent in the black political world on this? >> i think that that's too simplistic. i think that is a divide and those that have made the effort of trying to push for certain accountability and those that haven't. because joe biden has on his staff people that are of a younger jen rake, sacedric richmond, chairman of the professional black caulk kiss,

sand worries came out of activism is not even 30-years-old. i think it's simplistic to make it generational. it is those that have always pressed and brooeeathed and pred and those who feel you can deal with other people and deal with it in a different way. that's always been, it has nothing to do with generation. it has something to do with approach. john lewis and others are 15-years-older than me. i respect their approach. they respect mine, i respect younger people's approach. it's all about trying to get to the same place. i think that was what was striking to me is that the vice president, former vice president did not understand, as i was talking to him, the sensitivity of some of the words he said. i don't think his intention was bad. but his wording i think, he should have owned and apologized that that could have been very hurtful, certainly hurt people like me to hear the son/boy kind of statement. >> we are running short on time.

i wanted to ask you about that that's a very interesting thing you said. do you think there is lasting damage to joe biden among black voters because of this? >> i think it's what he does with it from here. if he owns it, if he says i have been out here for decade, i may sometimes say things that are mistaken what i mean and if i did i apologize for any harm and moves on. i think the more he looks like he denies the sensitivity, he makes it something that could last longer than it should have from his perspective. but many of us are not going to let go of the fact that when we are wounded by word, we're going to say we are wounded by words. they matter to us. we have been called boy for generations and our signals go up when we hear that term. and that should not be something that we pass over for anyone, old friends, up in friends, whether they are in south bend or someone we have known for decades. >> all right, reverend al sharpton, thank you. >> you can see the rev every

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because we know mom wants what's best. more beverage choices, smaller portions, less sugar. balanceus.org . i hope to be your nominee. i will work as hard as i can to get your support. here's the deal, whoever the democratic nominee is, we have to stay together and elect a democrat president of the united states of america. >> and welcome back. that was former vice president joe biden this weekend speaking to voters in south carolina. eighth state where he leads by double digits in most of the polls. it's the strongest early state in the polling. we will see if it gets a shakeup after the big debates this week. ben, let me start on biden. this was a test for him this week? >> yes. >> he stepped into controversy. i think a lot of people said widep has a tendency to do that. how did he handle it?

>> i think he handled it okay. i wouldn't say he handled it all great. it has happened. i think you can certainly make the argument and you have a twitter stream. he was talking about when there was an element of comedy when people disagree with himself. he could have exstricted himself kwit quicker and i think he was fine in south carolina. i think he will ultimately be okay. his numbers are very good there. we will see how much he gets hammered in the debate. i think he comes out of it okay. >> the reverend al sharpton, we interviewed him, talking to us right now, he wasn't too happy with this particular answer from biden. let's play that exchange. >> i do understand the consequence of the word "boy." but it wasn't said in any of that context at all. >> but you understand that -- >> no, no, no, no, no. >> they would never call me son.

>> they called teddy kennedy boy. that was the distinction. the reason he called me senator demeaned me more because son because he said i'm not even qualified to be in the senate. i'm not old enough, i'm a kid. >> zerlina, is that the kind of moment the rev it was interesting, wasn't happy with the answer? does the political world move on from that, this is forgotten in months, or is that the kind of moment that builds an impact. >> this is a narrative. joe biden isn't in context with 2019. it doesn't mean he can't fix it and furs explain what he meant with the segregation remarks. i think it was out of touch. it's not like it was a racist rampblth no one made that argument or is claiming that joe biden is a racist of any sort. what critics are saying is tone deaf. right? it sounds to a black person like you are saying in the good old days when we were more civil, i

could get along with the segregationists. what you are obscureing is a segregation wouldn't get along with someone like me. its not a matter of boy versus son. fundamentally i am not a human being deserving of equal rights in the eyes of a segregationist. that's the fundamental problem i think he is missing when he is trying to explain away his comments. i'm hopeful, though, he is given a space in the debate to explain and then i hope that other candidates that are sharing the state with him holds him to account and perhaps force him to better explain what he meant and potentially i think apologize for some of the hurt he caused. >> that's the other interesting question, the other interesting thing i saw happen this weekend or fought happen this weekend. >> that is that corey booker, who initially was sort of mixing it up with biden over this, he seemed content to kind of leave it there and back off a little bit and nobody else seemed to want to force the issue.

none of the other candidates. de blasio might have. beside that, none of the other candidates really seemed to want to force the issue here. what does that tell you? >> it tells me there was one good aspect in full force. that was his surrogates. they immediately came out. you had jim clyburn the host of the events saying, c'mon, this is not something to talk about. let's move on. so he had a lot of cover by a lot of influential leaders in democratic politics, both nationally and in south carolina. so that was very good. what was not so good is the way he brought up the issue again with his interview with the rev. these were all self inflicted wounds. this incident i don't think is a long-term problem. i think it's a potential with a long-term problem for the campaign and how they handle the situation. >> ben, how do you think biden is going to do on that stage this week? this will be the largest audience i think, he will have sanders, what do you think that

will be like? >> it's a really good question. you never know what you will get with joe biden. he does have a history of being good with the debates and look tact tapes from previous debates. >> obama on the ticket? >> he is good at this stuff. he delivers one-liners in a great way. i would think he will do strong, this is an existential election of getting rid of donald trump. not that he doesn't have serious stuff to answer for and explain, he does. if you look at biden as the indicate, the unifier, the guy that can take this case to the mid-west and everywhere else, that's what you will expect to see. if he does that, i think he will be successful. >> we had donald trump, he keeps saying bind is the one he wants. there is this whole debate. does he really want biden? what is in his mind? leave that to others to say. the fact that trump out there almost brit on, give me biden, does that help biden's standings

with democrats? >> i do think so i think it helps, if donald trump thinks he's at my level he would be tough competition, then that's you know a good thing for democrats. because i don't think that trump is saying he wants biden because he feels like he will easily beat biden. he feels that's sort of monoayman no right in a traditional toxic masculinity frame if terms of who can be tougher and more masculine. again i think this election is a unique opportunity to move beyond that. we have a lot of women running for president. i think what will be interesting to see them on the stage with joe biden, bernie sanders and all the rest. because they will be able to go at joe biden's record on these specific issues where he may have ka pit late to conservative interests and that's something he will be held to account. >> that's something everybody will be wanting to see, is there a direct showdown? ben, sui sarn, thank you all. there are only two days left to

what we were talking about, the first democratic debate here on msnbc. we have one of the 2020 candidates here next.

welcome back. we are just days away from the first round of democratic presidential debates. 20 canned datdidates looking to on the stage so far. joining me now ohio candidate

tim ryan. he will be a participant in the first night of debates. that's this wednesday. it will be on all the nbc family of networks. congressman, thank you for taking a few minutes and joining us. i appreciate it. let me start with you, though, you're a member of the house still. we were talking at the top of the show about the situation at the border and what's to come in washington in response to that potentially this week and next. it looks like dueling funding bills, one on the senate side, one on the house side. it seems to me there is wide agreement on spending some money here, but there are differences here in terms of details. what is it in particular that you want in this bill that the senate right now is not ready to go with? >> well, i'm not sure -- i haven't seen the senate proposal, but making sure we have enough money to take care of these kids. i mean, we're the united states of america, for god sake. we should be able to take care of kids who are coming from treacherous situations. they're now here in the united states. we should make sure that if they have the flu, they shouldn't lay there in their own snot on the

floor with what looks like a metal blanket. this is ridiculous, and we should be able to take care of the kids, make sure they get the kind of basic health care that a country as rich and powerful as we are should be able to provide. >> one of the stumbling blocks here it sounds to me potentially, democrats in the house want to put into this a specific protection for any sponsor in the united states who steps forward to claim these children from hhs and say, hey, it's a relative of mine. some democrats want to point to the specific language saying, okay, you can't take that information and use it for deportation purposes. is that where you stand? >> yeah, i think that's appropriate. i mean, we're talking about little children here, little kids that, you know, are, you know, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old. i mean, we have to do what is the right thing to do. and that, to me, seems like an adequate way to get these kids in a home where they can be taken care of, and then

processed. but the big thing here, steve, the issue is in central america. the president has not talked for five seconds about where these people are coming from and what the situation is like in honduras and guatemala and el salvador. we need to go to the root cause of the problem, stabilize these countries so that people aren't migrating into the united states. that's why they're leaving there. they're going to get thrown into gangs, young girls thrown into the sex trade. of course they're going to leave and of course they're going to come to the united states. let's go down there and fix the root cause of the problem. >> let me turn to eiran obviousy in the news. announcing further sanctions, do you support what the administration did today on sanctions? >> look, this is a frustrating situation. these sanctions are going to have zero effect because they are trying to say that the ayatollah basically is not going to be able to participate in the international banking system. that's a joke. do we really think that the ayatollah and iran is putting

his money in international banks? i mean, this is a country -- it's like saying we're going do do that for vito corleon. the mob doesn't put their money in the bank. the problem started when the president pulled us out of the agreement in iran and that's why this thing is getting escalated. so i don't know what the end goal is here. i can't support something where i don't know what the end goal is, and so i want to hear more before i agree to support any of this. >> there is the more immediate instigating factor here, though, just for the events of the last couple days, of iran shooting down that drone. if you think these sanctions today are feckless, what should the response be of the united states to iran doing that? >> the response should be that we should re-engage with our partners, including russia and china and the european countries who put the joint agreement

together, and we should sit back down at the table with iran and craft another deal. and it could be based on the last deal because we don't want them to have a nuclear weapon, and we want the region to be stabilized. and ever since we pulled out, it has started to unravel. i think that is the first step. let's get back at the table. but the problem is, steve, you've got john bolton there who has wanted regime change in iran for how long? years. and now he's the head of the national security agency, and of course we're going to be in this position where it's going to be nothing but conflict. we used to be a stabilizing factor in the world for decades, and now we cause more chaos than is needed. there is enough chaos in the world. you don't need the united states causing more. >> all right, congressman tim ryan of ohio, presidential candidate. two of those issues we talked about likely to come up i think in those debates. again, wednesday night you'll be with the first group, two

nights, ten candidates each. congressman, thank you for taking a few minutes. we appreciate that. >> thanks, steve. >> we'll be right back. e right k (woman) when you take align, you have the support of a probiotic and the gastroenterologists who developed it. (vo) align naturally helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets 24/7. (woman) so where you go, the pro goes. (vo) go with align.

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and a quick reminder before we go, the first democratic debates are now just two days away. we are going to bring you complete coverage all this week and watch this wednesday and thursday nights on nbc, msnbc, and telemundo.

that is all for us tonight. chuck will be back tomorrow with more "meet the press" daily and "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. good evening, ari. >> good evening, steve. thank you very much. tonight donald trump's best people's claim seems to be demolished by his own internal documents. we'll explain. we are also two days away from, yes, this first primary debate which everyone has been talking about. tonight on the show you're going to hear from, among other things, some of obama's debate guru. his debate coach who i just talked to. we're going to get into what he says the candidates needs to be ready for. also fallout from a video showing trump lawyers arguing against soap and toothbrushes for detained kids. it's a story we've been all over because it matters. we bling in the top lawyer neal katyal for opening arguments. i begin with the donald trump whiplash, sudden policy change after days of bluster. there is real news tonight, and it is about iran. but i want to take a moment to walk through a wider context because we've seen the same pattern in play in those big