i kind of kept talking to these friends, but we're out of time. thanks to my friends and most of all to you for watching. have a grade weekend. that does it for our hour. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" with my friend chuck todd starts now. ♪ if it's friday, another trump administration official is out. add alex acosta to the ever growing list of former cabinet members. so still a first term. is this any way to run the government? plus, i.c.e. immigration raids are set for the weekend. we'll talk to one of the mayors of the big cities reportedly

being targeted. and confusion on capitol hill over whether robert mueller will actually testify before next week as scheduled. it's mt. and good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington. today the president's labor secretary alex acosta quit amid a barrage of his criticism for that handling of that 2007 plea deal with jeffrey epstein. and amid more victims speaking out. he made the announcement standing next to president trump who went to great lengths to insist that it was acosta who decided to do this, that he wasn't pushed, that he went on his own. >> i think he did a very good job yesterday under a lot of pressure he did a fantastic job, and he explained it. i just want to let you know this was him, not me because i'm with him. >> i do not think it is right and fair for this administration's labor department to have epstein as the focus rather than the

incredible economy that we have today. and so i called the president this morning, i told him that i thought the right thing was to step aside. >> there is no need at all as far as i'm concerned. and, alex, i think you'll agree, i said you don't have to do this. he doesn't have to do this. >> and now we have new reporting tonight suggesting that the president may try to replace the nation's top intelligence chief the director of national intelligence who's seemingly been in the trump crosshairs for a year now. i think we're almost one year to the day where he basically had a bit of a conniption fit over the president and that crazy helsinki moment with putin. if you can believe it, if acosta leaves next week, there will be at least 20, two-zero positions that are being led by an acring chief or no one at all. look at this liz.

list. we got an acting labor secretary, an acting defense secretary. actually, we've had two. chief of staff is acting but he's about to be the los angelesest acting chief of staff. i can't even say the names fast enough. and we're only showing you number ones and number twos in these vacancies. there are vacancies at their third and fourth and fifth level. is this any way to run the government? and what happens if there's a crisis? h-mmm, funny you should ask because there is a humanitarian crisis at the border, and the team in charge of handling it has been decimated in a carousel of chaos. the dhs secretary kirstjen nielsen resigned so the acting was pulled from the cbp. so now he's running dhs, not cbp, temporarily. cbp is now being run by someone who was the acting chief at i.c.e. after a string of

shakeups there. so he went from one acting job. he is now running the cbp, not i.c.e. both jobs temporarily, mind you. so now the deputy is temporarily running i.c.e. again because the agency's fifth acting chief under trump had to go run the cbp. -- cbp because that chief had to go temporarily run the entire department of homeland security. ooph. you may wonder is that any way to run the border amidst a migrant crisis. joining me now from the white house is nbc's hans nichols and phil rucker and an msnbc political analyst. and andrea mitchell and host of msnbc's "andrea mitchell reports." hans, you're take white house so i want to start with you. you know, on one hand it's not a new story here, the president even brags about liking the actings. i alone can fix it, well, he alone is in charge.

>> that's how he likes it, chuck. and i think what was the most telling to me about that conversation that he seemed to be having with alex acosta there in front of the cameras was president trump basically telling alex acosta i would have let you stay but i didn't. i think that's the mystery in all this. because other people submitted resignation letters, the president can refuse them. it was clear that the white house didn't like the trajectory of this story. all the other cabinet secretaries that have led to that list, the credits that you were playing there, it's all taken place over a much longer time. so when you talk to officials inside the west wing, they're not really surprised that acosta left. they are surprised with the velocity and the timing of this. and i think the big difference here is that the acosta story had a direct nexus to donald trump through his friendship with jeffrey epstein. because of that, perhaps it was just simply too close, and that's why this moved a little bit faster. chuck? >> i want to point at this again. and, hans i hope you stick with

us again for this entire segment. put up this first full screen. labor, the feds, the chief of staff, cbp, i.c.e., femma, the u.n. ambassador, the fda. we don't even talk about that there's temporary at the federal aviation administration. oh, we just have this boeing issue. the fda where we decide our food and drugs and what we put in our mouths. if we had -- we've dealt with acting e.p.s, it works for, what, about a month, right? i mean, my point is that if you in any workplace, if you know your manager's not really in charge, do you listen to them? >> it's also that these people cannot bring in credible chief of staffs these are large government agencies that have lots of people who are supposed to work there, and they cannot create their own teams. so, yes, acting might be better for the president very narrowly in that he thinks he now has power and can pull the strings and they're all loyal to him and him only, and he can fire and get rid of it at will.

but it is absolutely no way to run the government. it's no way to run a small business or a large business or a television network because there's no authority. >> there's no e.t.a., by the way. i'm sorry. you wouldn't have that because you wouldn't know who is in charge. >> how often, with all due respect, how often did you listen to the substitute teacher? >> exactly. point exactly. fill ruecker, there are people in the white house that are concerned about this. but they also sort of shrug their shoulders and say you try recreting people for this administration? >> we've seen from the very beginning that trump's not able to recruit the top talent. he searched again and again and again for a communications director for the first year in a white house and couldn't get anybody. >> i think one spontaneously combusted. [ laughter ] >> a couple of them did, i think. but the other thing missing here is the accountability measure. there's a reason that these cabinet officials have to go through senate confirmation. it gives the people's representatives the senators a

say over these appointments and they vet these appointments through those confirmation hearings and through those votes and that's missing right now so these cabinet secretaries are not at all accountable to the government. >> i think to me very acute about dealing with this border issue, and you have a bunch of temps and making decisions and they're not sure if they make the wrong decision if they get fired so they're probably walking on eggshells themselves. but i i noticed that democrats haven't figured out how to make a critical mass of this issue. >> the danger is, i mean, a lot of members of congress represent federal employees who work at all these agencies all around the country. and, you know, the problem is not just the top who's out, but it's the second, third, and fourth because those are the worker bees. those are the people that the

civil servants go to for policy decisions. so you have a whole stack of policy decisions that are sitting there not able to be decided. meanwhile, the government just keeps churning on. and i think democrats, especially in the senate side, senators have to get far more aggressive about this because who do you call to congress to testify about what's going on in an agency if no one's in charge? >> you know, hans, there's also -- this has impact on the re-elect, and i don't think this white house fully understands it. if you don't have agencies humming very well, that does impact specific communities that might actually matter to your re-elect. you take something like the defense department in particular. to go through the way he's done this and, look, this is your old beat so i know you know it well. it is amazing how many problems they've had there filling slots. >> and those will only compile when you have some shuffling

around because when esper is nominated, he can't be nominated and acting at the same time so they'll bring in someone else, mr. spencer, who is the secretary of the navy. if this matters across the entire government, chuck, if you actually want to make changes and turn the ship of government around, the irony in all this is that the chiefs of staff that andrea is mentioning, the assistant secretaries of transportation. these are the people that really know where the levers of government are and how to move things. and the irony with trump firing a lot of people, accepting resignations, having actings throughout, is that the swamp win. the bureaucracy wins. when you saw that in the bush administration, to some extent in a later part of the obama administration, they really took aim at regulations at the regulatory state and for the obama administration trying to increase them by doing things through the agency. there is a great deal of power there. but to do that, you have to have a team in place. so, in a lot of ways the things

the president wants to do to get them across re-election, he's hurt because he doesn't have the team players in there or the experts to really move things. guys? >> yeah. you know, i have a little bit of breaking news here, andrea. apparently you think we had craziness with temporary replacements before. courtney chimes in here. over the next two weeks there will likely be four different people transitioning in and out of the top two positions at the pentagon due to various -- and he was referring to this. but, you know. >> the joint chiefs is all being shaken up. >> we're in the middle of a dispute with a potential issue with iraq. who's got the upper hand? it's also the relationships with our nato allies. you've got defense ministers from all over the world meeting at these various summits. >> with a temp. we are sending a temp, the substitute teacher. >> it happens to be that he is a west point graduate, so better

than shanahan because he was basically from the boeing company and had no experience at all and was actually leaving the boeing company, a defense contractor. he also has a defense contracting experience esper after he left the military. but he at least had some military experience. but we are going up against experienced defense ministers. >> we talked about the impact at the border and today actually some members of congress including aoc who visited these migrant centers gave their first hand accounts. here's a bit of a collection of what we heard today. >> this is a manufactured crisis because cruelty, because the cruelty is manufactured. this is a manufactured crisis because there is no need for us to do this. there is no need for us to overcrowd and to detain and underresource. >> and my democrat friends

world, the crisis at the border they said was manufactured. we heard it for months. in my world, president trump and republicans have been sounding the alarm for years. >> mr. chairman, it needs to be noted into record. i spoke to cpb agents, even though they told us not to speak to them too. remember that? and i said what do you think we need to do because you guys are overwhelmed. they said one of them, stop sending money. it's not working. another one said i wasn't trained for this, i am not a social worker. i am a -- not a medical care worker. he actually said i want to be at the border. that's where i was trained to be at. >> we do not get anywhere by blaming the people who are doing their best to help these people. >> this is about having the will to treat people with dignity. we have the power to change this. do we have the will? >> this texan is not going to sit by and watch his state and texas communities get overrun and abused because the cowards

of the swamp sit idly by. >> those are all members of congress, make policy, help me. >> you know, look, it's really clear that what's happening at the border has been driven by the policies towards central america and ripping away aid to the triangle countries. it's also true that democrats, especially in the house, have to get on the same page about what our border policy is. i mean, clearly it's not open borders, but it's also not continuing to throw money, good money after bad that keeps people in the kind of conditions that they're in. and, in fact, after the border bill passed, border funding bill passed, is when we saw the incident reports that came out showing even more egregious conditions than we -- >> i don't think anybody thinks we should have more money so we

can build more detention camps, right? like, i think -- that seems to be one of the warnings being issued here. >> and one of those who's testifying is from el paso, veronica escobar and was a witness to a lot of what happened. she's not with aoc in trms of being one of the rebels in the caucus. but they are passionate about what they seen. >> phil rucker, how confident should we be that the vice president who's doing his own tour today of one of these facilities is getting the real picture? or do you think he's getting a cleaned up picture? >> he's getting a pretty cleaned up picture. i would say we should have no confidence that he's seeing the real deal, that he's seeing what the inspector general saw, what these democratic house members saw. this is a tour to show off one of the cleanest facilities that the government is running, i believe, outside of mcallen, texas, and the reporting from

that trip from my colleague josh is in the pool and he said that it's not overcrowded that the kids seem happy. they're on cots and blanks and food. and they have tvs and they're with family, and so forth. so it's a very different environment. >> so, hans, is this a case where the trump white house is going to say, see? all these other reports are not true? or do they acknowledge that these other reports are true? a big trump supporter, he testified to some terrible conditions. so, are they going to say he's lying? >> unsubstantiated and unauthorize school district what the administration's position has been up to this point. they're nitpicking on some of these reports and saying well, it couldn't be confirmed and they couldn't actually get complete fidelity on something like that. look, the trump white house wants to tell two stories in the border. one, they want to say they are doing a great job and they are building the wall. the president actually told me that on the south lawn. he asked me about iran and

misheard me on iran. >> i think that tells you where his head is at. >> and they claimed the wall is being built. but at the same time they still have this line there's a crisis down there. so if there's a crisis they need this additional money, but they're not willing to acknowledge certain aspects of the crisis, which is overcrowding. they have policies and the politics to sell as well. >> well, their policy goal don't seem to fit. phil, don, and andrea. is he gone? or is this just one of those he's dangling on the vine? >> he's a proud person, a former senator, a former ambassador. a lot of support among the republican senators. i don't think the person that is being gossiped about rumored that they did talk to that we know that they talked to is a former chief of staff. >> could mike pom pepo save dan

coats? >> i don't know. and i don't know how much the relationship is good, the former cia director, but i don't know how much they would stand up. >> put himself on the line on that. up ased, cities nationwide are bracing for this weekend's i.c.e. raids. the federal government is targeting thousands of undocumented migrants. the mayor of atlanta is joining me live with how her city is responding. plus, is china about to take over america as a technology power? the rapid changes and what they could mean politically. itically with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. and you never know how your skin will look. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema

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wanna take your xfi now you can with xfi advantage. giving you enhanced performance and protection. when devices are connected to your home's wifi, they're protected. helping keep outsiders from getting inside. and if someone tries, we'll let you know. so you can stream, surf and game all you want, with confidence you can get coverage where you need it most. that's xfi advantage. make your xfi even better. upgrade today. call, click or visit a store. so, people come into our country illegally. we're taking them out legally it's very simple. it's not something i like doing. but people have come into our country illegally. we're focused on criminals. we are focused on if you look at ms13. but when people come into our

country, we take them out very legally. they all have papers, and it's a process. and i have an obligation to do it. >> welcome back. that was president trump this morning talking about an upcoming nationwide roundup of undocumented immigrants, which he originally announced were going to begin more than two weeks ago. now the president says those raids are scheduled to start on sunday. immigration and customs enforcement officials, i.c.e., will begin looking for some 2,000 immigrants under deportation orders in at least ten major cities from los angeles to new york. well, one of those cities is atlanta. mayor keisha lance bottoms joins me now. mayor bottoms, welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> let me start with what president trump said. he said that most mayors want these raids. true or false? do you want this raid? >> absolutely false. and i doubt that he's spoken with any mayors. i speak with mayors on a regular basis. we communicate via text, telephone. and i have not heard a single mayor say that they are

interested in these raids, nor do we need these raids. and he mentioned ms13. i meet with my police chief multiple times a week. not one time has she mentioned that we need assistance with i.c.e. coming through our community with a gang. it's another distraction. it's unhumane, it's not needed and it's not helpful to our communities. >> do you understand why he would pre-announce it? here's what i can't quite get my arms around. if there are people you think are a danger to the country and there's deportation orders, why would you announce that you're coming? >> well, it makes me wonder what distraction are we working on this week? we have a president who's a master of distractions. and i am sure there are many conversations he would rather us not have right now, whether it be the labor secretary, whether it be iran or any number of other issues facing this country, real issues facing this

country. and it's just extremely frustrating as a mayor. atlanta is a welcoming city, and we have a very large and vibrant immigrant community. and even outside of that my eight-year-old son asked me was he born in america. and he asked was his 11-year-old brother born here because he's afraid that our family will be separated. so there's anxiety that's being created, not just in our immigrant community but with anyone who has passion, compassion and certain for human beings. >> if you trusted this administration, and i take it you don't fully trust how i.c.e. is doing this, but if you did, what would be the proper way you would want to have the federal agencies interact with the city when it came to -- if there were deportation orders, there are people who have been adjudicated and said you could not be in this country anymore, how would you see as the most effective way to communicate with your city, with you and your city

leaders and your law enforcement people to have that dealt with? >> well, certainly not via twitter. we hosted the superbowl earlier this year. there was cooperation with our federal partners to make sure that our city was safe, and responsible law enforcement operates that way. we coordinate, we meet, et cetera. now, let me be clear as it relates to immigration, our city does not support i.c.e. we don't have a relationship with the u.s. marshal service. we closed our detention center to i.c.e. detainees, and we would not pick up people on an immigration violation. but it's important that we know what's happening in our communities, where it's happening. what happens when our 9-1-1 calls start coming in? we don't have any point of reference as to where they are looking to pick up people, and it creates unnecessary chaos, and it's not helpful to our city. i'd much rather those resources

be put towards something that we actually need, and perhaps the president would know that if he bothered to communicate with the mayors in these cities. >> at this point, do you think i.c.e. is -- i mean, you talked about you just -- you basically decoupled any relationship between i.c.e. and local officials in atlanta. is i.c.e. salvageable as a working partner with the federal government? or do you think it needs to be either abolished or massively reformed? >> i think it needs to be massively reformed. we ended our relationship with i.c.e. because we were concerned that atlanta would be complicit in the family separation crisis. and we did not want to house any detainees in our city facility. we did that last year. i think that it's always useful for us to have a healthy relationship with our federal partners, but it is extremely

challenging when you have an unhealthy and unhinged president. >> i understand your lack of trust with this administration. we've got a lot of these folks sitting in these horrible conditions at some of these migrant camps. at some point there's been some talk. do you take them to some cities that might welcome temporarily or something like that? what role would you want atlanta to play if the government said, you know what, we can't keep these migrants in these detention camps, we're going to -- you know, we're going to find other places for them to go. would atlanta welcome? >> chuck, i'll tell you atlanta does not have a facility where we would cage children and that we would house children. there needs to be a bipartisan conversation, an effort to address meaningful immigration reform. this is not the way to do it. and we are compounding this. we already have a humanitarian crisis happening at our border,

happening on american soil in these facilities and to compound this is unnecessary. and certainly as a leader of atlanta, i want to be part of a conversation that will give us meaningful solutions. but to say that you are coming into our city and that you are going to pick up people in the middle of the night, separate even more families, that's difficult as a conversation starter. >> mayor keisha lance bottoms, i know this is going to be perhaps a long weekend. maybe it's more bluster from twitter than actual. we shall see. or maybe it is a rough weekend. either way, i know it's going to be a long weekend for you. thank you for coming out and sharing your views. i appreciate it. up ahead, waiting for mueller again. he's supposed to testify before congress next week. but now maybe not. but we're not sure. we'd like to know. ok everyone!

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welcome back in tonight's 2020 vision we've got a new poll from south carolina. this one was taken after joe biden's apology for his comments about working with segregationist senators. >> i've had a great day in south carolina. >> joe biden spends a lot of time in south carolina including campaigning there again last weekend. and all of that time is apparently paying off. the a new poll shows he has a

21-point lead with democratic primary voters there. bernie sanders a distant second followed by kamala harris, elizabeth warren, and cory booker. amid that positive news for biden though is we got a look today at how easily a negative primary campaign against him could be waged. and it came from a man who is running a bit of a gag campaign. you can call it the first negative ad of the primary. it hammers biden over his support for things like the iraq war, his past views on abortion, busing, and the '94 crime bill. >> i had the most progressive record of anybody running. >> loorks his campaign isn't a serious one, sort of being run more by young folks. gravel has just sort of let him do it. but what the ad does highlight is something that could be a serious issue. it was a surprisingly well put together ad, and you can see how easily it could have an impact.

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i'm not saying anything about. >> welcome back. something unusual is happening on capitol hill right now. special counsel robert mueller is scheduled to testify publicly next week in back-to-back hearings before the judiciary and intel committees. but two sources tell nbc news that the hearings may be delayed at least a week until july 24th. but nothing has been finalized at this point. as you just heard jerry nadler was tight-lipped this afternoon when he was asked about it. so frankly it's a bit of a mystery. wi and he's also -- he's a double threat. he's a member of the house oversight committee too. pretty much that's a busy plate for you. congressman raskin, thanks for coming on. i know you're not in the negotiations with mueller right now, per se.

this is the chairman. but can you give us some insight? is this about negotiating more time? what is the -- why would this be delayed a week? if it is? >> as you say, i'm really not involved in the inner negotiations that have been taking course throughout this afternoon. i've been in the hearings about the treatment of kids at the border. what i understand is that, you know, basically they're just negotiating the details of the special counsel's appearance, and i'm hoping that they will come to closure on it sometime today or tomorrow. >> how -- i mean, i would imagine first of all, are you going to be -- because not everybody is going to get to question mueller. is that still the case? >> um, again, i don't know what's taking place, you know, if there's more time we'll be able to exercise the normal five-minute rule. i think that i may have been just on the wrong side of the

cut-off on the original plan. >> oh, no. do they do it by seniority? >> yeah. everything is by seniority here, of course. but, look, you know, the main thing is that we want to hear from the special counsel. we want him to say in his own voice in his own words exactly what the findings of the report were because he found tremendous evidence of obstruction of justice. that has been misstated and misrepresented by the president and by the attorney general. and there was lots of evidence of collusive activity between the trump campaign and russian nationals. >> how do you conduct this in two hours? i mean, or even three? what you want to lay out there doesn't feel like will get done very well in halting five-minute segments that are sort of back and forth by party. >> yeah. look, the best we can hope for is to pierce through the fog of

propaganda that was left by the attorney general with the ludacris mantra of no obstruction, no collusion. there is tremendous evidence of presidential obstruction of justice, at least ten different episodes where the president tried to directly interfere in the special counsel's investigation. so we know that's wrong. and then no collusion, of course, the special counsel starts off the report by saying i don't look at the question of collusion which is not a criminal law concept, it's an anti-trust law concept. it's up to every american to determine whether these contacts were appropriate or not. he did not find that there was significant evidence to prosecute for conspiracy. i never thought that vladimir putin and the gru needed donald trump and donald trump jr. to execute their assault on american democracy. >> you are somebody that supports opening an impeachment inquiry now. but it is not a majority of the conference, per se, and obviously the speaker is not yet there. if she doesn't get there after

mueller testifies, does this mean impeachment's off the table? >> well, um, i think a majority of the judiciary committee, a majority of -- but most of the people who serve on the investigative committees have come to the conclusion that based on the mueller report and other information we have that we should launch an inquiry into impeachment, not file articles and vote on articles of impeachment but to launch an investigation. look, i think that when mueller speaks a lot more americans are going to be educated about what the contents of the report really are. and then we'll begin to have the discussion which was really derailed by the attorney general when he delayed the release of the support by three and a half weeks and then misstated the contents of the report repeatedly prompting the special counsel to write two letters of protest complaining that the attorney general was confusing the american people. >> i want to move to the hearing

that you were discussing that you were involved with today. that is having to do with the conditions at these detention centers with migrants. i guess if there's good news, it's that there is now bipartisan acceptance that these conditions are terrible. >> yeah. >> but that's about all we're at now. i guess that is a step forward. i think house democrats, you don't have a lot of trust in this administration if you hand them money to try to deal with this because obviously you don't like how we got to this crisis. everybody believes we're in a crisis, but one side believes the other side manufactured it, the other one believes that they don't take it seriously. how do we resolve this when there's so little trust i think really between particularly congressional democrats and the administration? >> look, this is a humanitarian crisis and catastrophe taking place at the border. we really don't have time for political finger-pointing. we can replay all of that.

>> well, wasn't today's hearing a bit of that? >> it was interesting because it went long enough it. >> went for five or six hours that we really got through the partisan and we got to look at the reality of what's taking place down at the border where you have hungry kids, you have sick kids. you have scabies and lice and chickenpox out of control. there are six kids who died in detention in the prior decade before that started. no kids had died in detention. we heard from a woman this week whose name is yasmin juarez who lost her daughter. she said after complaining for weeks about her daughter's respiratory infection she could not get the proper medical attention. when she finally got out of the facility, it was too late, she made it to an emergency room, but her daughter died shortly thereafter. we're hearing really tragic stories about what's taking place with the overcrowding, with the sickness, with the

filth, with the stench. there are lawyers who came to say that they couldn't even get near the kids they were talking to because the smell was so overpowering that now basically contam united states entire facilities and entire rooms of overcrowded people packed in there. so we've got to view this crisis as something that calls upon the conscience of our nation. they are coming from political violence, terrible violence. in some cases it's domestic violence, it's gang violence in a lot of these societies and they are coming up here, and they're looking for help. and america is big enough, we're wealthy enough to treat these people decently and to make sure that the kids have a safe and civil environment. >> you used a keyword there. this is a refugee crisis. and in every community, communities become a lot more welcoming when they hear the word refugees, and i think that is probably something we ought to be thinking about. >> and we should not treat refugees as criminals. so thank you. >> and we normally don't, and that's why i think properly

identifying them as refugees might sort of change the tone and tenor of some of this conversation. so, congressman, that i appreciate. thanks for coming on and sharing your views. up ahead, is china on the vernal of taking america's place as the technology superpower? our man richard engel investigates. plus, in the big fight u.s. champions still have ahead of them. . maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. eh, not enough fiber... chocolate would be good... snacking should be sweet and simple.

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welcome back. tonight i'm obsessed with goals and what'stant standing in the way. did you catch wednesday's parade for the u.s. women's soccer team? thousands lined the streets of new york to celebrate the world cup champions. no question. what these women just achieved is simply breathtaking. but now they're aiming to achieve something else. they turned it into a groundswell of support, equal pay. because when you compare the numbers from the men's and women's teams, the market is speaking, it's plain to see, they just don't add up. each of the women is getting a little over $200,000 in fifa prize money, but if they were men, they would have gotten more than a million dollars. so now they are suing the u.s. soccer federation for equal pay and working conditions every year. why shouldn't they? again, if you believe in the

free market, listen to these stats. u.s. women's soccer games have generated more revenue than men. the gender disparity in sports is obviously widespread and it's not good, it's wrong. yes, there's been some progress. tennis is the is the biggest on. since 2007, those grand slam tournaments finally have equal prize money for women and men. the women generate a lot more interest in many years than men do. title 9 has been good for protecting equality for student athletes and done a lot to build interest in team sports for girls and women. professional sports is obviously the next lodge step. yes, the soccer federation should level the playing field. the organizations is that govern sports should be the ones to take the lead on this. but equality in sports is about so much more than just equal pay and the way more needs to be done. what about the corporate sponsorships? why aren't companies stepping up to fill the pay gap? imagine the publicity nike would

go have gotten if they made surety women got paid the same as the men in world cup. something tells this is no doubt about an important issue. it's one of the reasons megan rapinoe will sit down with me on "meet the press" this sunday morning on your local nbc station. we'll be right back. g on your l station. we'll be right back. across the country, we walk. carrying flowers that signify why we want to end alzheimer's disease. but what if, one day, there was a white flower for alzheimer's first survivor? what if there were millions of them? join us for the alzheimer's association walk to end alzheimer's. register today at alz.org/walk. who got an awful skin condition. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time.

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technology to get there. the chinese president xi jinpinging is investing heavily in artificial intelligence from driverless cars to robot workers trying to challenge the u.s. with a tech revolution and using artificial intelligence to build the ultimate surveillance state. richard engel traveled across china getting a look at the good, bad and ugly of the tech war. >> reporter: i've been coming to china for years. and with each trip, i'm astonished how quickly it's changing. not long ago, they had no subways. now, you buy your ticket with your phone. the mobile internet everything here. and it's everywhere. cheap smartphones, super fast internet speeds mean this is now a connected nation. but there is also a dark side to all this technology. while it makes it easy for people to navigate their way through china's smalling

megacities, this is also a country where no one is ever out of sight. there are an estimated 200 million surveillance cameras in china and now they not only know where you are, they know who you are. in china, big data and artificial intelligence have come together and their offspring isn't pretty. in fact, the union of technology and data collection can be terrifying. >> well, chief foreign correspondent richard engel joins me now getting ready for this special. richard, this feels like the 21st century version of essentially the space race between the soviets and americans. >> it felt like that in many ways when you are going through china, it felt like the united states after the second world war. there was a spirit of a can do attitude, people think that this is their moment for the nation

to shine. at that time, it was the u.s. versus the soviets and now you sense that it is china versus the united states that chinese people and this is coming from top officials down to people we talked to on the street, sense that they are in this global race with the united states for preep nens in the world and that this is an opportunity for china while the u.s. is struggling with domestic challenges, where there's deep divisions in this country. they think it is china's time to rise. the way to do it is to invest in technology. >> what's interestinging is obviously technology has served as sort of a second financial boone for this country over the last 30 years and created this economic disparity roiling our politics, as well. but i am curious, does the united states, why are we behind here? is it because the government isn't fully -- what would you compare -- what would you diagnose it compared to what

you're seeing in china? obviously, they do everything that is state sponsored. >> there are certain things about china that are easy to admire. there is a tremendous sense of collective action. people want to work hard. they're willing to sacrifice. we met school kids who go to school at 6:00 in the morning, don't leave till 8:00 at night, studying robotics, artificial intelligence, very, very hard working, very bright kids. and you sense they're willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the nation and they are on this be collective mission together. all of that very admiral and you could say the united states had that spirit and maybe has become more selfish or divide or distracted. but on the negative side, when you take a deep look at things at any problem you find things that you find admiral and disturbing. the way they are taking their collective action and turning it into collective surveillance is

also quite astonishing. they are not only using artificial intelligence to invest in future technology. they are using it to rank individual citizens, assigning people based on all of the data that the chinese communist party can scoop up, and that is a lot of data they can scoop up from facial recognition to your financial history to your criminal record. then they automatically combine all of this and come up with an aggregate score for you, a social credit score that is effectively your value as a citizen. >> richard, that was an episode of black mirror" two seasons ago which, of course is this dystopian view of how tool is going to. >> i've seen it. >> now you're describing it in real life in china. that's something else. congrats on the special. we'll watch it for sure. don't miss on assignment with richard engel sunday 10:00 p.m.

eastern right here on msnbc. dvr it right now. we'll be back monday with more "meet the press" daily". if it's sunday, it's "meet the press" on your local tv station. make sure you're recording us and watch us live. >> i have a question. you are my washington expert. the ways of government, the ways of this town. is there a mueller hearing wednesday? is will not a mueller hearing? it was long scheduled and subpoenaed but now maybe it's not. understand the town. what's happening. > look, what's happening i'm guessing a whole bunch of members are bummed ha they only get mueller for two hours at a time. so this is clearly about going wait a minute, are you really going to be up here for two hours. i just had jamie raskin on who sort of admitted he fell on the wrong side of the line on seniority of getting to ask questions. ask yourself, raskin is a good questioner. you would think democrats would want him up there trying to do